Energy: Malaysia Faces Complex Choices, Says IAEA Chief

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Bernama) -- Like many countries, Malaysia faced complex choices in planning to expand its energy mix and ensuring energy security, said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Dr Mohamed ElBaradei.He said in Malaysia, more than 90 per cent of its electricity was generated from fossil fuels, primarily natural gas from domestic reserves with the balance supplied by hydropower and other sources.But with natural gas reserves decreasing and electricity demand continuing to rise, Malaysia had begun looking at other possibilities to ensure its future energy security, he said."At the IAEA, we stand ready to assist you (Malaysia) in finding solutions (to energy needs) that best suit your needs and priorities," he said in his public lecture on "Nuclear Power :Looking to the Future" here.ElBaradei said that for Malaysia, a comprehensive energy policy study including consideration of nuclear power is to be completed by 2010.According to ElBaradei, nuclear energy alone was not a panacea, but it was likely in the future to have an increasing role as part of the global energy mix.He said the need to ensure adequate and reliable energy supplies was directly relevant to development and to national and international security.On Malaysia-IAEA partnership, ElBaradei said Malaysia had been a strong and supportive partner of the IAEA and Kuala Lumpur was also a party to the Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) with a comprehensive safeguards agreement in force and in November 2005, Malaysia signed the additional protocol to its safeguards agreement.He said the IAEA had a large and active technical cooperation (TC) programme in Malaysia, citing as an example the United Nations agency's support for the use of isotope hydrology in Malaysia to combat groundwater contamination in industrial sites."We are also supporting the establishment of a Malaysian cyclotron facility for radioisotope production. The most recent such development was the establishment of a laboratory for the application of radiation in nanotechnology," he said.The lecture was organised by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia as part of the National Nobel Laureates Programme. In 2005, the Egyptian-born ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.-- BERNAMA