PM Says No Nuke Power

By Syed Akbar Ali

PARIS: Malaysia has no immediate plans to develop nuclear energy for power generation, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. He said the Government would have to increase the contribution of hydro-electric energy first, as part of its review of the fuel mix for the country. “Somewhere along the line, if we decide there’s a strong case to generate electricity using nuclear power, we will take that decision but not immediately.”

This is a wise move. In my earlier days I thought that nuclear fission energy was the solution to our energy needs. But now I feel (or fear) that the nuclear technology (one of the most advanced areas of scientific endeavour) is still primitive.

There is still no practical method of dealing with nuclear waste other than dumping it. If technology to really treat (meaning kill off the radioactivity) nuclear waste is developed, then we can consider nuclear energy.

The other concern is safety. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were really close calls. We still do not know how many more people will contract cancer and other diseases as a result of both Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

There is another option in nuclear technology ie the fusion reactor technology. Fusion reaction does not produce radioactivity (I think).

But for the past 50 years they have still been trying how best to contain an electro-magnetic plasma (which is hotter than the sun) inside a doughnut shaped tube without touching the walls of the tube and then still do the other things it has to do - fuse atoms, release yet more energy, refill the fuel (hydrogen) and so on, all at temperatures hotter than the sun.

At present, break-even (self-sustaining) controlled fusion reactions have not been demonstrated in the few tokamak type reactors around the world.

In tokamak talk : a tokamak is a machine producing a toroidal magnetic field (an electro-magnetic field going around a circular coil) for confining a plasma. It is one of several types of magnetic confinement devices and it is one of the most-researched candidates for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power.

But there is hope on the horizon : Workable designs for a tokamak reactor which will theoretically deliver ten times more fusion energy than the amount needed to heat up plasma to required temperatures is scheduled to be operational in 2018.

We should get involved in research in this area. This is cutting edge. I am sure our boys and girls can do it too.

In other good news from the PM, the French have granted Air Asia landing rights at Orly Airport in Paris.

PARIS: AirAsia Bhd has been granted landing rights in Paris, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said here. He said this was conveyed to him by French President Nicholas Sarkozy during their meeting at Elysee Palace in Paris on Wednesday.

The French leader had given his approval for the budget airline to land at Orly Airport, southern Paris, barely 24 hours after Najib had raised the matter with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. Najib had noted in that meeting that AirAsia was the Airbus A320’s biggest customer in the world.