Recently Malaysian government has given approval to the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water to look into identifying suitable sites for the country’s first nuclear power plant which was expected to be operational around the year of 2021. A lot has been talked about alternative energy such as solar and biomass, but these types of energy will not be enough to meet our country’s demand, plus they are all in early stage of development, the price is much higher and the efficiency has not been proven. Spending millions of money in research field is good but keep in mind that the year of 2020 is coming very soon, and we do not have much time to focus on these researches. We can do the research but at the same time, the nuclear power plant should be built. It has been there around the world for more than 50 years, the efficiency has been proven, and we can look around globally to learn with other countries and take note of the advancement in technology of nuclear.
In conjunction with environmental, health impact and risk about nuclear energy, the security of nuclear power nowadays is very advanced. No doubt it is not 100% foolproof, but with advanced technology, the system of a nuclear reactor is designed to totally shut down if any errors occur. In addition, there will be regular checks for radioactive leakage from the reactor.
Nuclear energy can lead to a cleaner environment as a nuclear power plant does not release any harmful material to the environment like chemical or greenhouse gases. It is significantly low of carbon emission, and wastes from the nuclear core are also well managed. People will think the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 is a very good example, and use this as main reason to oppose this move.
They stress on that nuclear can cause health problems to affect residents and contaminate the surrounding farmland. In my opinion, this is quite contradicts to the statement made by Masterskill University College of Health Sciences deputy vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Proom Promwichit, “many people were unaware that nuclear power was the safest source of energy compared to others.” He said so far, its use only involved a risk of 0.007 per cent and there had yet to be accidents involving nuclear energy reactors, unless caused by human negligence or sudden unexpected tsunami in Japan. I came into conclusion that do Americans, Koreans or even Japanese did not aware of this problem? But why they still use nuclear energy in their countries even after 3 major accidents?
If we talk about social impacts and other parameters, there is always advantage and disadvantage. It all comes down to how people are being informed, and personal acceptation. We would like to highlight that by having nuclear technology in our country, it will help to generate interest in people’s mind. This advanced technology will be the catalyst for young generations to cultivate their interest in science. This will help our education system, and with this there will surely be subjects like atomic or nuclear radiation being added even in school level.
Looking at the alternatives of energy to invest for our country’s future, I can rule fossil fuels out immediately. We also faced many problems with every form of alternative energy. The most efficient source of renewable energy for our country has been hydroelectric power. The problem hydroelectric power creates more problems than it solves. Building a large dam necessarily floods an enormous region behind the dam which in turn can displace tens of thousands of people. So far, there is only one good solution to cope up effectively with our energy demands, it is the nuclear energy.
Concerns about health, environment effects and risks or terrorism are really something to consider, but we can control these by implementing new rules about nuclear, much more sophisticated hospitals specialized for radiation checking, and a better defence system to protect uranium and nuclear power plant from being misused. We can overcome these problems, and at the same time, improving our country’s defence system, hospitals, education, money, and the most important part is to ensure that we can meet with the demand power generation for our developed nation and it’s all in one name, nuclear energy.
Looking at the bad side, people who are living around the area of the nuclear power plant will have fear factor, plus with the nuclear name it is not possible to spark any interest of terrorism since we are living in the terrorism-prone area. But all of these can be avoided if government provides people with sufficient information about nuclear energy. The risk of accidents or leakage of the reactor is always a concern, but everything has a risk. Some level of national sacrifice is needed in this respect.
Prime Minister Of Malaysia Is Considering All Aspects For Our Nation.
Regards, Nuclear Boy.
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