M’sia should do research on renewable sources of energy: Expert
The Government should consider undertaking research on other renewable energy sources rather than using nuclear energy in the face of rising global oil price, an expert said yesterday. President
of Physicians for Peace and Social Responsibility, Datuk Dr Ronald McCoy, said Malaysia might not have enough funds to undertake research on renewable sources of energy if it spent more money building nuclear reactors. “We must look into renewable sources of energy rather than concentrate on economic projects that are unsustainable,” he said when speaking at a forum on “Nuclear Abolition Now: Tomorrow May Be Too Late”, at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, here yesterday. Dr McCoy said it was not a good idea for Malaysia to use nuclear energy if the world price of fossil fuel continued to rise. “The Government should look into alternative sources before resorting to the use of nuclear energy,” he said when commenting on the recent move by the Government to consider using nuclear energy should the world price of fossil fuel continue to rise. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had said that the Government was prepared to use nuclear energy to substitute oil as a long-term alternative to produce electricity if the fuel price continued to surge in the global market. However, he said, the Government would first look for other alternative sources of power such as solar, hydro, biomass and garbage. Dr McCoy, however, told the forum that there was no other method yet to dispose radioactive waste from nuclear energy, except by burying it deep underground. “If you have radioactive waste which is going to last for thousands of years and if you can’t dispose it, then it will become hazardous to health,” he said. He also refuted claims by certain nuclear energy industries that nuclear energy was considered cheap. “Nuclear energy is not cheap. The cost of building the facilities is high, the cost of maintenance is high, and of course the cost of re-conditioning the nuclear reactors is very high,” he said. - Bernama
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