Here's the result from our survey, which is about general public acceptance of nuclear power plant in Malaysia (click on the image to zoom in) -
From our result statistic, we found that majority of the respondents are aware of the nuclear power generation. They know what nuclear can give and help they in energy source. Some also respond positively on the waste, the carbon emission, an the safety. Other than that, some also still with their principle, not supporting nuclear. It is understood as the effect of nuclear bombing and explosion showed a great impact in the affected society. Ours my be taking some lesson, avoiding the same from happening towards our own.
The question about feed in tariff, it is quite as expected as we got most " No" for the question "Are you willing to pay more to support renewable energy and by how much in tariff increase" . In my humble opinion, Malaysian should change their mind. Most of them. Wanting cheap energy but never want to pay more. Well i seriously not putting any blame of Malaysians themselves. Maybe the salary itself does not enough or maybe the lame perception is permanently passed by generation to generation.
I am not capable to comment more on the recent energy and power status in Malaysia. It is more political that we thought.
To conclude, I found that Malaysian is not fully blinded from the positiveness of nuclear power. But still a lot more need to do to convince people on nuclear. For the future generation. - msanne
Have you ever heard of floating nuclear power plant? Russia has made such a big, significant step in designing the new nuclear power plant. This new nuclear power plant was designed after the cooperation between Indonesia and Russia.
We are always afraid of the things we do not know. We are quick to judge, criticize and even hate the unknowns without fully understanding the causes. It is not entirely our fault to have fear. In fact, it is fear that helps us to differentiate between good and bad. But we must not cloud our visions by relying on fear alone. One must learn and think wisely before making any action.
Everyone is afraid of nuclear. In fact everyone will have the same image of mushroom clouds in Hiroshima & Nagasaki whenever the word is mentioned. Why would anyone use nuclear for energy generation when there are other safer alternatives available for people to choose. Why play the risk?
All this while, I was like that too. I always favour hydro-power power plant over the others. Like everyone else, I'm afraid of the word nuclear itself. Nuclear means bomb. And bomb means destruction. It resembles doomsday.
Well, that's what I thought until I take a nuclear subject for my degree study. It's an elective subject by the way so why would you think I choose this to fill my degree credit hours eh? To be honest, I'm just curious.
And that curiosity alone leads me to view nuclear in a different way. Nuclear is essential. It's the future and it will be the main source of energy to all of us. Yes, I admit we have other alternatives to generate electricity; photovoltaic solar power (PV), hydro-power, biomass, wind, geothermal and wave.
But one must realize, these source of energy are not available to every country. They are limited only to the lucky ones. Taking Malaysia for example, we can only use solar, hydro-power and biomass. We are not located in Pacific Ring of Fire region so geothermal is out. Wind is not constant and strong enough to turn the turbine blades since the country is surrounded by neighbouring islands and mountains. With no wind, of course there will be no waves.
What about solar? Here in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) we have 3 PV panels for that and guess what? The panels are supposed to generate 3kWh but our panels can only produce around 1-2kWh even when the sun is shining brightly. Surely, many factors contribute to this. The panels might not be efficient enough. Plus we have high humidity, clouds, rains and no sunlight at night; they affect the energy generation.
Nuclear FAQ
Cherenkov Effect (the blog) has discussed much on what nuclear is all about so this time I'll try to explain some misconceptions regarding the matter:
Nuclear power plants produce harmful radioactive waste while other forms of electrical generation do not.
Mining for coal brings uranium to the surface of earth. That radioactivity can have a greater effect on the environment than nuclear waste. In fact every mining activity releases radioactivity from the ground to the atmosphere. We can't escape this.
Radiation causes cancer. Thus, it cannot be used to cure cancer.
Excessive radiation can cause cancer. However, utilizing the destructive power of radiation on cancerous cells can cure cancer. Radiation occurs everywhere. Read this article to lighten your worries.
Once a material is radioactive it is radioactive forever.
One can physically remove the radioactive particles from the material or wait for it to decay. Some radioactive decay in a short time while other decays might last longer than 10,000 years.
Are current nuclear power plants unsafe?
Probably so. They were also build 30+ years ago with technology that was even older. We must not compare Fukushima's incident to the new to be build nuclear power plant.
Can nuclear plants be built and run safely?
Yes. Every submarine and all but one Aircraft Carrier in the United States Navy is run by nuclear reactors. They are berthed at such places as San Diego, Bremerton, King's Bay, and Norfolk Virginia. In over 50+ years there has never been an accident or discharge involving contaminated materials of any significant level -taken from comments here.
Ok... Let's forget about coal and petroleum. Renewable Energy can cover the electricity demands. It's clean and it's the future.
By 2030 the world energy consumption is going to grow by 50%, renewables alone are not going to cut it especially because right now they're contribution is in the single digits compare to 20% of nuclear -taken from comments here.
States and locales that don't have the wind for windmills, or open space for solar will be forced to burn or buy from elsewhere. Transmission of clean power into these regions will be required to stay clean, even though transmission too has its dirty impacts. Environmentalists need to be open to this logic, and show a willingness to compromise for the lesser of the evils, and not block the cleaner alternatives because they are not perfect.
Malaysia is rich with enough water dams to run the country. We have Bakun dam. More possible sites have been found too.
Indeed. We are blessed with enough rains and rivers to set up hydro-power plants. The question is, are we willing to sacrifice the forest to build one? A big area is needed to hold the water for the dam. Villagers and animals need to be relocated to another area. Bakun dam can produce 2GWh of energy which is enough for Borneo island consumption.
But we have to understand the possibility of connecting Peninsular and Borneo. Construction cost of building underwater cable can reach up to RM 12 million per kilometre and the cables will be laid across our neighbouring countries. Political views might interfere the process.
The cost to build a nuclear power plant is too expensive and takes too much time. 20 years to build.
So do with other power plants. The current power supply is enough for now but we're not sure about tomorrow. We are living in a modern world, we use smartphones and advanced computers everyday. The plan to build nuclear power plant in Malaysia is to ensure the stability and constant supply of electricity in the future.
Haih.. I'm not really sure about this nuclear technology. I'm afraid about the consequences. Who knows what might happen?
So am I and all of us. We can't escape the risk. In fact, other energy power plants share the same fate too. Every action comes with consequences. What we can do is to explore and study the options carefully (when I say carefully, I mean in every aspect, theoretically and practically). We have the best engineers, let's put our faith in their hands. Join forums and discussions about nuclear power plant.
Learn the facts, be relevant and reasonable. Have an open mind.
There are lots of resources in generating energy to power up our daily live. The increase in the demand of energy has put a lots of challenges to fulfill the required needs in the century. Lots of consideration and comparison has been done to gain knowledge in generating energy. The table below are premised on the assumption facilities run with reasonable attention to environmental protection so far as routine operation and concern of waste management.
Table of comparison between Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Energy
[click table to enlarge]
** Question has been raise about the effect of krypton- 85from extensive reprocessing necessary for a breeder reactor system on cloud formation and hence potential climate change. However krypton- 85 can be removed from exhaust gases by cyrogenic cooling.
While we are still looking into nuclear as energy sources, China - a big player in both energy and economic power take a large step to go ahead with nuclear. Their target consist of three stages :-
by 2030 - Fast Breed Reactor (FBR) in combination of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) will produce 200GWe
around 2050 - combination of FBR and PWR output are expected to be doubled up to 400GWe
by 2100 - full replacement of fossil power plant and electricity are generated by means of nuclear plant instead. The expected output is 1500GWe
To achieve this target, China are looking into some new experimental design like Chinese Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR) which utilize fast neutron instead - which means neutron doesn't need to be slow down first to achieve a controllable reaction and desired power output like Generation II and III reactors. Some other alternative reactors that China still looking into are:-
Chinese Demonstration Fast Reactors (CDFR) - similar to OKBM Afrikantov design. It uses ceramic MOX pallets fuel (breeding ratio of 1.2).
Chinese Demonstration Fast Breed Reactors (CDFBR) - uses U-Pu-Zr fuel which has higher burn up and breeding ratio of 1.5. These are Generation IV reactors.
So, looks like China is one step ahead to achieve a higher score in never-ending global energy race. With it's current economic growth, energy hunger on such a large scale is already expected. Let's hope we can catch up fast.
