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Published on September 4, 2007

The Nuclear Power Infrastructure Preparation Committee (NPIPC) will today discuss His Majesty the King's speech against nuclear power, the panel chairman said.

Kopr Kritayakirana said he would recommend the Science and the Energy ministers to be granted an audience with the King in order to listen to his advice on the possibility of future use of nuclear energy in the country.

"We are going to carefully consider His Majesty's speech," Korp said.

In his speech to ambassadors, consul-generals and senior Foreign Ministry officials gathering for an annual Royal audience at the Dusidalai Throne Hall on August 29, His Majesty expressed concern over the country's plan to build its first nuclear power plant.

He warned that the technology should be taken with extreme caution because of potential dangers and social conflicts.

While the NPIPC would discuss His Majesty's concern about nuclear power, Premier Surayud Chulanont came up with an idea to seek 200 nuclear experts.

Speaking to a gathering of National Defence College students yesterday, Surayud said the experts would help the country go nuclear in the next decade.

In the nation's 2007 Power Development Plan (PDP), the Energy Policy and Planning Office said nuclear power would contribute 5 per cent of the country's energy by 2020.

It planned to build two nuclear power plants to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity in the next 13 years. Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand insisted that nuclear energy was needed as an alternative source of power, claiming that depending too much on any one particular type of energy could put the country at the mercy of energy exporters.

Since the 2007 PDP was approved early this year, all agencies involved in the energy sector have speeded up efforts to make the issue of building a nuclear facility public.

Several sites along coastal provinces including Prachuap Khiri Khan and Chon Buri have been proposed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) as possible locations for the plants.

Navy commander-in-chief Admiral Sathiraphan Keyanont admitted yesterday that Egat had once asked to build a nuclear facility in Sattahip Naval Base in Chon Buri.

Sathiraphan said he turned down the request, as he could not allow a power plant to be built in a naval base.

The Nation