KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Malaysia has the expertise to build its own nuclear power plant and earlier than scheduled. Atomic Energy Licensing Board chairman Prof Datuk Dr Noramly Muslim said the country had around 80 PhD holders with expertise in nuclear engineering technology.

"Some of these people who are nuclear trained are now chief executive officers in banks and big companies.

"This is because we have put our (nuclear) programme on the back burner."

Noramly said only about 10 to 15 per cent of this expertise was required to operate a nuclear plant.

Prof Jong Hyun Kim, of the Nuclear and Quantum Engineering Department at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, said while it took his country some 20 years to build a nuclear power plant, Malaysia would need only half of that time.

According to Jong, Korea had only three nuclear scientists with PhDs when it embarked on building its first nuclear power plant but Malaysia today has so much more expertise and better technology and newer processes.

Jong said Malaysia should seriously look into tapping nuclear energy as a source of electricity in the long run.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad had announced earlier in the week that it would start its nuclear power plant by 2025, once it got the green light from the government.

Its nuclear energy head, Dr Mohd Zamzam Jaafar, said the country needed to prepare for a nuclear future because of volatile prices and limited energy resources.

Thirty countries operate over 400 nuclear power plants.

The US has 104 nuclear reactors which produced 19.4 per cent of its electricity supply, while Europe had 196 which produced 30 per cent of its electricity.

In Asia, Japan operates 63 reactor plants producing 34.5 per cent of its electricity needs, South Korea operates 20 reactors producing 35 per cent of its electricity needs, and China operates 11 reactors producing two per cent of its electricity.

By 2030, Jong said Korea was looking at increasing its nuclear reactors to 41 to be able to generate up to 59 per cent of its electricity.

"So, at that time nuclear power will dominate. Right now coal is the dominant energy source."

Noramly said Malaysia generated 60 per cent of its electricity from gas, with the rest from petroleum, hydropower and other sources.

Jong said Vietnam and Thailand had indicated that they were seriously looking into building nuclear power plants.

"In fact Vietnam has approached us (at the institute) for help. At a recent Beijing conference, 60 countries expressed interest in going for nuclear power."

Noramly said European countries such as Britain and Italy which wanted to decommission their nuclear power plants were reviewing their decisions.