2 Days Workshop - Plan, Development of Nuclear Power Program (NPP)

Its a good opportunity for attending this workshop, due to a lots of information (current issue and info) related on energy issue especially on nuclear power which had been presented by the expertises from Planning, International Relation Division and Nuclear Power Division of Nuclear Malaysia.

As a new and young generation of researcher, all information and previous history like this shall be shared to enhance the knowledge and skill in current research project.

In this workshop, an information such as current condition of planning and development of Nuclear Power Plant for Malaysia has been discuss exclusively and should be not leak or spreading outside (only circulate among the attendees). What make me interest are, I now really know what is the current decision for the next plan(as of 2010-2030 plan) and the time line for the nuclear development. and the best part is the locations of the plant (highly secrecy) to be developed.

Furthermore, we are been teached how to draw our own roadmap in order to achieve the development of NPP (generation III Plus) at least for the year 2020. and should be decide to continue using the next generation and so on till the year of 2030.

Beside the informations I gained, I met a lot of peoples that might be make myself like and interested to communicate and have a interconnection with, in order to learn more from them.

Last but not least, we are trained to produce our own roadmap and I think it will give more benefit to me, myself, to the agency and to the nation.

Advantages of Nuclear Energy

The advantages of nuclear energy shall be compared between energy generated by gas, coal, oil(fuel), solar, wind and water. Eventhough solar, wind and water are good alternative sources of energy for our country(Malaysia) - in term of cheaper, but the efficiency output of energy by these sources is actually very limited. However, nuclear energy is more cheaper than energy generated by gas or coal-fueled power plants.

Nuclear energy is much cheaper because Uranium price is stable and much more lower than the prices of oil and coal. Also, Uranium is aplenty and estimated to last more than a century which is sufficient enough for about 100 year.

Another benefit or advantage is nuclear energy is also more environmentally friendly than burning the fossil fuel and gases which emits greenhouse gases. Coal and oil have sulphur impurities and release sulphur oxide, which can cause of acid rain.

In term of safety, nuclear power plant is becoming safer and more efficient and proper waste disposal system has also been structured. Furthermore, the amount of nuclear waste produced from making enough electric energy to power an all electric household for about 30 years can be fitted in a cigarette pack( can you see how small is the amount of waste produced..).

As a conclusion, I can say that the nuclear energy give more advantage in social concern over pollution, cost of living, issue of global warming, energy security and energy cost.

So what are we waiting for?, lets agreed to develop the nuclear power plant for our own benefits.

Nuclear Energy as an Option

Lets we pick up one issue - sources for the generation of electricity in our country,Malaysia.

For our information, nuclear energy is not include as one of the sources for the generation of electricity under our national policy on energy - which was drown up in 1979.

At present, we are focusing too much on coal, gas and petrol to generate electricity while hydroelectric power tends to destroy a lot of the environment.

As a comparison to burning petrol and gas for electricity, nuclear energy is generally much better and clean environmental where only one rod of nuclear needed could last for up to 20 or 30 years in providing the electricity. - this is the main factor what are we looking at. Thus, it will benefit to our country in reduction on cost, save energy, green environment and etc.

So why don't we realize how good the application of nuclear source to us today and lets make it real on the future.

How Nuclear Generate an Energy

Nuclear Power - is an energy source like thermal, solar, hydro and others natural energy. This energy generated when neutron is strikes to radiation source such as Uranium, which will be split into two. The splitting will create heat or thermal energy which is used for boiling the water in the system to produce steam for turbine power generator.

Easy says, it is involvement of energy transferred process from nuclear energy to thermal energy thus resulted of electrical energy and so on.. And please keep in our mind that the reaction (nuclear reaction), all takes place in safe and isolated area such as in reactor - need shielding area from radiation exposure.

If we are not using a nuclear reaction, we also can use a coal as a bahan bakar to heat the water to produce steam - which only involvement of transferred process from chemical energy to thermal energy.

Hopefully, we can understand what exactly a nuclear power process as a general.

Nuclear Perception - Basic Info

Most of people give a bad or negative perception when a word of "nuclear" is mentioned. For them, nuclear is an element that can damage world and peoples by explosion and radiation. When I was offered to work with Nuclear Malaysia, a lot of views and ideas were through such " oh, you want to make a Bomb!!", "you will join Osama - as a terrorist" , "don't you scared of chances of getting cancer" and so on - that is why we have the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) to protect people from these harmful radioactive materials.

Here, I would like to correct people's perception against word of nuclear power, where it is actually is a power produced from controlled nuclear reaction (non-explosive) that can generate power, such as an electricity, application in medical and industrial such as x-ray and gamma-ray and more. We need to understand what is the element of nuclear it self - maybe for the next posting I will try to explain and provide an info of the fundamental of nuclear elements.

Generally, radioactive is an elements that very synonyms with nuclear power and it has been used widely. Radioactive - a substance of materials which in unstable condition and need to react in order to achieve a stable condition by emitting ionizing particles and radiation.

Proud to be A Researcher

Alhamdulillah and thanks God for giving me an opportunity to achieve my dream- being as a researcher in government sector. I am proud being as a government servant and will give the best service for the nation.

On 2nd of November 2009, I joined Malaysian Nuclear Agency, MOSTI as a research officer (RO) and attached with Industrial Technology Division (BTI) under Plant Assessment Technology (PAT) cluster.

My core task in PAT is to develops and enhance the Computed Tomography (CT) system such as Micro CT and X-ray CT in order to apply in nation industries - automotive industry, oil and gas industry and more. And the rest is to create and innovate technology according to my interest and knowledges.