Officials search for clues in a crater made by a bomb in Narathiwat’s Yaring district yesterday. The blast, apparently aimed at a convoy of security officers and teachers, killed a villager and wounded two

The government is considering building a nuclear power plant within the next 15 years, as an alternative source of power, Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand said yesterday.

Many countries had nuclear-powered electricity plants, especially Asia nations such as Japan, China and South Korea, while Vietnam was studying the possibility, Piyasvasti said.

"Thailand uses natural gas for 70 per cent of its needs, and if we don't use other types of energy, that will reach 90 per cent in future," he said.

He said depending too much on any one particular type of energy could put the country at the mercy of energy exporters.

Meanwhile, changes to the price structure for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) would be carried out this year, he said.

A public hearing will be held next Wednesday on the government's new power-development plan (PDP), and one of the topics will be alternative energies.

Piyasvasti said the ministry would heed all parties' opinions in the plan, which will be put to the government by the end of this month. The plan will then be used to invite the private sector to bid for the government's independent-power-producer programme late next month and in April.

Tomorrow, the ministry will ask the National Energy Policy Council for its approval to amend related laws and the initial PDP concept, he said. And next Monday, the ministry will propose to the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO) that a new pricing formula for ethanol and biodiesel be more closely linked to world market prices.

Ethanol would follow Brazil's pricing strategy plus transport and insurance fees, while biodiesel would follow pricing for raw palm oil.

In regard to the plan to float the LPG price, which is currently lower than in other countries in the region, Piyasvasti said the

EPPO was studying the pros and cons of three options for the ministry to make a decision on later this year.

The options were a price adjustment without "floating", a full floating and a semi-floating structure.

The ministry would mix the B100-formula biodiesel into all diesel oil at 5 per cent by 2011. Thus, Thailand would have no "normal" diesel available after that, he said.

Meanwhile, gasohol would still be sold along with normal diesel oils, pending an expansion of ethanol production, he said.

Piyasvasti said the ministry would this year pay off debts totalling Bt39 billion from the previous government's measures to keep oil prices low.