Malaysia Moving Into Nuclear Age... Again??

According to one of our deputy minister, the recent hike in oil prices may force Malaysia to "revive" our nuclear energy program, which he claimed have stopped in 1970s.

Malaysia already a nuclear state in 1970s??

Reading further:

Sebenarnya cadangan mengenai penggunaan nuklear untuk tenaga di Malaysia dicetuskan pada 1970-an ketika negara yang pada masa itu berada dalam blok dunia ketiga, berhadapan dengan krisis harga minyak yang tinggi.

Ketua Pengarah Institut Penyelidikan Teknologi Nuklear (MINT), Dr Daud Mohamad, berkata apabila harga minyak ketika itu melambung daripada AS$5 kepada AS$15, kerajaan mula memikirkan penggunaan nuklear untuk menjana
tenaga.

Bagaimanapun, katanya, krisis harga minyak dan bekalan bahan api itu tiba-tiba dapat diatasi apabila beberapa telaga minyak baru dijumpai di perairan Malaysia.

“Dengan penemuan baru itu, program nuklear untuk penjanaan tenaga dihentikan walaupun MINT ditubuhkan pada 1972 untuk meneruskan penyelidikan nuklear bagi kegunaan dalam bidang lain seperti perubatan,” katanya di pejabat MINT di sini.

So in other words, our country never did went into nuclear energy in 1970s. It was only an idea, like the idea of sending our satay to space and the idea of achieving vision 2020. So much for the title "Kita mungkin guna semula tenaga nuklear"!

Well, Petronas really had stand in our nation's way of venturing into sustainable and clean energy. We should blame Petronas for being the main obstacle to our nation's journey into nuclear energy. I wonder why with all the profit Petronas is getting year by year, why didn't the management thought of researching into alternative fuel? Since our oil reserve will probably run out in 10 years time, it doesn't leave much time does it?

I hope the said minister is not just merely "suggesting an idea" like what they did 30 years back just to get into the history books. In fact, I never realise we even had a "Institut Penyelidikan Teknologi Nuklear (MINT)" until this morning. A quick look at their website (at least they have a decent one) show that MINT was set up more than 30 years ago.

I wonder how much fund has been poured in and how much R&D has came out of it for the past 30 years? Or are the equipments there still in "MINT" condition like when they were first bought?

Let's just hope the people hired there is competent enough to handle a nuclear reactor. Recent events suggested that our nation fail to operate and maintain even the most basic utilities such as power generator, water supply, water pipes, computer labs, hospitals, highways etc.

Let's hope there won't be another Chernobyl in our own soil !!