Dr M against nuclear power as source for electricity

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he will not allow nuclear power to be used as a source of electricity in the country, citing an incident where Malaysia had to deal with a type of irradiated ore.

"When I am still around, there are two things people do not do.

"Number one, they do not smoke near me and number two, they do not generate electricity using nuclear power.

"I am much against nuclear power, because we had a very bad experience with nuclear materials," he said in his keynote address at the Conference of the Electric Power Supply Industry (Cepsi) 2018 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.

Malaysia used to produce a type of irradiated ore used to make colour televisions in the past, Mahathir recalled.

But as technology advanced and it was no longer necessary to use the ore to produce colour televisions, he said Malaysia was left to deal with the remaining irradiated ore.

"We were left with the residue of this (ore) in this country because it is radioactive.

"Eventually, we agreed to bury this substance in an area which was one square kilometre large. We had to bury it under thick cement to prevent the radiation from affecting people," he said.

'Not worth it'

Because of this incident, he said, Malaysia lost one square kilometre of land as the area was still not safe.

This incident taught him that waste from irradiated materials was not easy to deal with.

"Science has not been able to deal with the waste material after it ceases to be a source of power," he said.

It may be cheap in the short-term to use nuclear power as a source of electricity, the prime minister added, but it was not worth the trouble in the long run.

- Mkini