Thailand will delay the commercial startup of five planned nuclear power plants by three years because of safety concerns following the nuclear crisis in Japan, Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul said Wednesday.
Thailand will delay the commercial startup of five planned nuclear power
plants by three years because of safety concerns following the nuclear crisis
in Japan, Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul said Wednesday.
He said
Thailand
will
instead build three 800-megawatt combined cycle power plants to offset the
deferral of the nuclear plants under the country's long-term energy development
plan.
Thailand
had
planned to start commercial operations of the first nuclear power plant in
2020.
Wannarat said the decision by the National Energy Policy Council was due in
part to recent comments from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said
that it didn't believe
Thailand
was
ready for nuclear power. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency raised
issues including Thai laws and regulations, and the opposition of local people
to the construction of nuclear power plants in the country.
Domestic opposition to the plan to develop nuclear power plants has been
increasing amid heightened fears about their safety following leakage of
radiation from nuclear power plants damaged by last month's earthquake and
tsunami in
Japan
.
Thai authorities have long pinned hopes on nuclear power as an alternative to
natural gas, as the country's reserves are being depleted and it is highly
dependent on the fuel, which accounts for around 70% of total electricity
generation. The idea to build such a plant was first proposed by the
state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in 1966.
Under the government's Power Development Plan for 2010-2030, EGAT had planned
to develop five nuclear power plants with a combined capacity of 5,000 megawatts
within the five years beginning 2020.
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