analysis: MALAYSIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY
Commitment is not enough to catalyze nuclear power
Going nuclear in ASEAN: Can Malaysia keep up with the race to nuclear energy use?
Malaysia’s commitment to turning to nuclear power is without doubt, but a myriad of roadblocks could delay the country from achieving its nuke ambition and becoming a nuclear powerhouse.
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n January of 2011, two months before the paradigm-shifting Fukushima incident, Malaysia, ASEAN’s third richest nation, and third largest economy, took the bold step in the “go nuclear” route to establish its state-backed nuclear energy organisation, NEPIO (Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organisation. Dr Zamzam Jaafar, one of the nation’s leading energy experts, who already boasted a greater than three decade career at the Tenaga Nasional Berhad (the national power utility), was asked to take the reigns as NEPIO’s CEO. He was the obvious choice. Holding a PhD in nuclear engineering, Zamzam
While there is no doubt that Malaysia is committed, a lot must occur before the nation’s first operational NPP opens its doors.
Nuclear timeline of selected Southeast Asian countries
Source: Southeast Asia’s Nuclear Energy Future: Promises and Perils 28 ASIAN POWER
helmed the nuclear unit of the Malaysian power supplier long before NEPIO was conceived. Everything was ahead of the fledgling organisation, including the problems that were about to arrive, albeit vicariously, due to Fukushima. But NEPIO and Dr Zamzam have steered a steady course and Malaysia’s nuclear energy industry is prevailing. In his sixth year as CEO, Zamzam describes the Malaysian government’s commitment to its nuclear programme as “a long-haul assignment… but we have been working with the IAEA since we started, and before that too when I was head of the nuclear energy unit at Tenaga Nasional.” Next big move Zamzam labels both Vietnam and Bangladesh as the next movers and shakers in the Asian nuclear industry, with Bangladesh, interestingly, leading the way. Although if one considers Bangladesh in context, it is an obvious contender to go nuclear sooner rather than later, a massive, swelling, power hungry population inhabiting a relatively small land area, an under-developed economy but one which enjoys relatively stable government and has a middleclass on the precipice of exploding in
size. “Last December Bangladesh signed a government-to-government contract with Russia, and the Bangladeshi nuclear authority issued a construction licence for 2017. I think the target is for the operation date of the first unit is 2023, and the second unit in 2024.” Malaysia’s own aspirations While regional co-operation is bound to continue to the benefit of all nuclear newcomers in Asia, Malaysia (or more precisely the Malaysian Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water) has just take the lead in chairing the development of a ASEAN nuclear energy cooperation body. “For our part, we have already decided to proceed with what we call the IAEA Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review Mission, due for roll-out later this year” says Zamzam. Under this framework the International Atomic Energy Agency is set to provide some highly detailed analysis and follow-on advice based on the moved that have been made in ASEAN nuclear over the last five years. “We are hoping that the IAEA will provide us with counsel for proceeding with the programme, what we have done correctly, what we need to improve on, and so on.” With reports from Simon Hyett