Nuclear Power : The Green Answer to Energy Demand

An adjunct professor of Universti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Nuclear Science Programme says nuclear power generation is the best option to meet Malaysia’s energy demand in the years to come.

“I do not mean to undermine the use of solar, wind and water energy to meet future power requirements from green and renewable resources but the best carbon-free option is nuclear energy generation,” said Prof David Bradley, a nuclear physicist, who arrived here 10 days ago for his two-week adjunct duty.

He said he is well aware of the present debate over the question of whether Malaysia should go for nuclear power generation, in view of the dwindling supply of fossilized fuel “which we can’t depend on forever,” and the carbon-spewing coal or combustion of vegetative wastes.

Except for nuclear power generation, all the other sources of power generation would require vast tracts of lands that can be better utilized for cultivation, not to mention the damage that they can do to the environment.

Prof Bradley, 58, who is from Surrey University, United Kingdom, said he could understand the Malaysian situation because “people all over the world generally fear anything that has to do with nuclear.”

What they did not know is that science and technology have developed and advanced so fast that “we know more about nuclear energy and we have much more sophisticated technology to ensure the safety of the nuclear power generation plant.”

With such a huge and growing industrial base, he said, nuclear power generation is an essential component of future supply of energy for Malaysia.

What people do not know, he said, is that the human body itself emits a low level of radiation, just like the environment. It is this fear and lack of knowledge that made people shy away or reject nuclear energy or anything that has to do with the word “nuclear”.

“Do you know that MRI (or Magnetic Resonance Imaging) was first called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging and they dropped the word ‘nuclear’ so that people can be comfortable using it in nuclear medicine,” he said.

“Ignorant is poverty,” he mused, noting that the first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had once said that India’s poverty was tied to its lack of energy. But the Indian economy is booming today because it had nurtured and grown its own crop of nuclear scientists who are at the fore-front of their home-grown nuclear power generation industry, he said.