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411830
Wed, 07/13/2016 - 06:05
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More Countries Considering Nuclear Power

By Noor Soraya Mohd Jamal KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- Despite its bad reputation following the incidents in Fukushima and Chernobyl, more countries are considering adding nuclear power to their energy portfolio. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), more than 30 countries have nuclear power ambitions and each are at different stages of preparing their infrastructure. The World Nuclear Association estimated that over 45 countries are actively considering embarking upon nuclear power programmes. IAEA Deputy Director-General Mikhail Chudakov said nuclear power was still growing and would continue to play a significant role. This is because, besides reliability, nuclear energy can also play a key role in mitigating climate change as well as keep within reach the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius, as targetted during Paris Climate Conference (COP21). "In order to fulfill the requirement of COP21 and to guarantee that we do not increase the global temperature up to two degrees by end of the century, we need to put in operation 20 (nuclear) units every year. "But it should be done safely, securely and subject to safeguards," Chudakov said at the VIII International Forum ATOMEXPO 2016 recently. ATOMEXPO is an annual nuclear conference and exhibition organised by Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation in Moscow, Rosatom. Rosatom, a state corporation established in 2007, is the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex. It is the only vendor in the world able to offer the nuclear industry’s entire range of products and services. INTEGRATED NUCLEAR INFRASTRUCTURE REVIEW The Vienna-based IAEA plays an active role in assisting newcomer countries that wish to develop nuclear infrastructure. "We have our instrument, the Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) that helps newcomer countries to assess their infrastructure in order to be safe and to have reliable source of energy for many, many years," he said. INIR covers the comprehensive infrastructure required for building a nuclear power programme, including 19 issues and three phases to be considered during the different stages of developing a nuclear power programme, so that countries can make informed decisions. Up to now, IAEA has conducted 17 INIR mission in 13 countries, said Chudakov. This year INIR was conducted in Kazakhstan and Malaysia, with a follow-up in Morocco, Bangladesh and Poland. "Last year we conducted INIR in Nigeria and Kenya," he said. Other embarking countries have also benefitted from this service, including Jordan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. Chudakov said IAEA was not in the position to judge whether a country was ready or not to safely operate nuclear power plant (NPP), but rather its role was to help countries ready themselves with the necessary infrastructure. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Rosatom Director General, Sergey Kirienko said nuclear energy was currently present in 33 countries. However, with more than 55 countries participating in ATOMEXPO 2016, the indication is that a lot more countries are interested in acquiring nuclear energy. More than 30 agreements and memoranda, worth US$10 billion, were signed between various countries and companies during the event. "We see that especially in emerging countries, it is a must for them to have sustainable development. "Nuclear power is not only for energy, but also for agriculture, nuclear and radiation technology, medicine, industry and science,” he told the media at ATOMEXPO 2016. FINDING THE RIGHT MIX Kirienko said there was no need to compare energy source against each other but rather to find the right and optimum mix. This is because every country is confronted with different choices and it should be structured in such a way that the country has a guaranteed and robust supply of power for economic growth. Each country needed to find the right balance to its basic load and it should not be dependent on seasonal fluctuation or climatic conditions. To keep the balance, it was important for low-carbon power generation to have the baseline generation, which could be provided by nuclear power, he emphasised. "Nuclear energy is necessary for low carbon and long-term electric power supply at predictable prices. It has no limit in terms of territorial area, and climatic considerations are irrelevant,” Kirienko said. Kirienko, who is also former Russian prime minister, said Rosatom has various projects to build nuclear power plant (NPP) in countries where the sun was shining 365 days a year such as Jordan, Egypt, UAE and Nigeria. Current large-scale projects for NPP are also launched by Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Russia - countries that possess vast resources of hydrocarbon. "That means even countries that have a lot of fossil fuel reserves, or other sources of energy such as solar power or wind power, do not bank on a single source of energy because that would make their economy extremely vulnerable," he said. SAFETY IS THE KEY CONDITION As more and more countries are considering developing nuclear energy sector, he pointed out that the key condition would be safety. "Safety can only be assured by references. You can do a lot of research, calculation, certifications, supercomputers that can model any kind of processes but only references can provide guarantee," said Kirienko. New countries really need to be supported by countries that have the experience and provide a comprehensive service of not only building NPPs but also in perfecting legislation, assessing and preparing infrastructure, training human resources, transferring technologies and other requirements. "So when we signed a contract to build an NPP today, we signed a contract for throughout its lifetime," he said. At the end of 2015, Rosatom's 10-year project portfolio amounted to US$110.3 billion, comprising 34 power units of NPPs worldwide. --------------------------------------------------------------------- SIDEBAR NUCLEAR POWER AS ENERGY SOURCE: WHERE IS MALAYSIA? Malaysia, which is among the 162 IAEA member states, has expressed its intention to build two nuclear power plants to meet rising energy demand, one by 2021 and the other, a year later. However, the country has also indicated that it did not want to rush or set a timeline because it was an important decision and had to ensure all the right facts were obtained before proceeding with the plan or otherwise. According to Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Malaysia would further explore the deployment of nuclear power as an option for electricity generation post-2020 in Peninsular Malaysia, and that the current status of nuclear power programme is active without decision. The Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Dr Maximus Ongkili last year said an Act on the use of nuclear energy to generate electricity would be tabled in Parliament this year. "It is still at the initial stage. The policy and legal framework need to be completed first. Malaysia needs at least 10 years to prepare in terms of infrastructure and manpower if the Act on the use of nuclear energy is passed by Parliament. "But at the moment, the priority is quite low as we are pushing for renewable energy and we also have to consider the lower oil and coal prices," he was quoted last year. Meanwhile, the Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation chief executive officer Dr Mohd Zamzam Jaafar was reported saying that the legislative framework was important because it would assist in the signing of agreements with foreign countries in assessing the purchase of nuclear technologies. Although Malaysia already has the Atomic Energy Licensing Act (Act 304) 1984, it nevertheless needed to update the act for a clearer national legal and regulatory infrastructure before developing a nuclear industry in this country. He said Malaysia thus needed to pass a new law on the subject, which should then be followed by a discussion between the federal government and the state governments involved. He said a time frame of 11 to 12 years was needed to build the nuclear power plant, and added that it had to undergo few procedures under the Entry Point Projects of the Economic Transformation Programme before it could be implemented. According to the Malaysia Energy Information Hub in its Malaysia Energy Statistic Handbook 2015, 65.5 per cent of Malaysia energy supply came from natural gas, 29.1 per cent from crude oil, 2.7 per cent from hydro power and less than one per cent from biodiesel and biomass source. The country operates a small nuclear reactor – 1MW Reaktor Triga Puspati (RTP) – that has been in operation since 1982 for research and development purposes and has an international nuclear safeguards agreement in place since 1972. -- BERNAMA

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