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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