I am not against nuclear power in concept but the devil is in the details. I would like to bring up 3 points for your consideration, given our track record in the region:
1.
Business Opportunity:
In 2008, Japan's Hitachi and US giant General Electric team up to
sell midsize nuclear reactors to meet growing demand for power facilities in Southeast Asia, a Hitachi spokesman said. So it is a business opportunity for these MNCs and that all the countries in Southeast Asia have to buy our nuclear technology from abroad. Please keep in mind the debacle of the Philippine Bataan Nuclear Energy plant and its failure leaving the Filipinos with a debt of US$2.2 billion (see point 3 (iii) for relevant link).
2.
Japan Leading Nuclear Energy Country:
Japan, which generates
29 percent of its power from nuclear energy, has two plants under construction with 10 more planned. More than that, as Gavan McCormack observes, Japan positions itself as a “plutonium superpower,” not only as the world’s most committed nuclear country but, even as one “nuclear obsessed.” By this it is meant that, alone among non-nuclear weapon states, Japan pursues the full nuclear cycle in which plutonium is used as fuel after the reprocessing of spent reactor waste, just as Japan has accumulated more than 45 tonnes of plutonium or almost one fifth of the global stock of civil plutonium.
3.
Earthquake and Other Risks Like Terrorists:
(i) Asia is prone to shattering earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis - a continuing challenge for nuclear power regulators and managers will be seismic hazard and the associated risk of catastrophic radiation leakage.
The 12 May 2009 earthquake in China that destroyed large swathes of southwestern Sichuan province killing more than 67,000 people, is a reminder, if one were needed, of how suddenly a tremor can strike and how much damage it can do.
(ii) The risks of nuclear power plants in geologically unstable zones was dramatically highlighted by the impact of an earthquake upon the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture on 16 July 2007. Fortified to withstand earthquakes as strong as 6.5 on the Richter scale, the plant nevertheless suffered a fire and leakage... But in the past two years, three incidents occurred--at the Onagawa Plant (August 2005); the Shika Plant (March 2007); and the Kashiwazaki Plant, respectively. In each case the maximum ground motion was greater than seismic design criteria of the plants. And I believe that Japanese standards of nuclear safety is the highest we can strive for in Southeast Asia.
(iii) There is an article on the
promises and pitfalls for Southeast Asia. These risks are to be managed. I hope that all countries contemplating nuclear power each have a good crisis management plan. You decide if you want our officials to manage such projects given the inevitability of human error. Please note that the Russians are playing a leading role in encouraging nuclear energy use in Indonesia and Myanmar. I am also reminded of the Russian safety record that has improved tremendously since Chernobyl.
