PETALING JAYA: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mah Siew Keong (pic) has denied that the Government will build two nuclear plants in Johor by 2022.

He said that the Government had yet to evaluate or select potential sites for a nuclear energy plant and was still determining the country’s readiness to adopt a stand on nuclear energy.

“We are still in the pre-programme phase.

“The New Energy Policy incorporated in the Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP) stated that we need to explore nuclear energy in the future national energy mix,” he said in response to claims by a DAP assemblyman in Johor that the Government was preparing to get the project off the ground.

Mah said the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) had identified nuclear energy under the Entry Point Project No. 11 on deploying nuclear energy to generate power as an option to diversify Malaysia’s energy mix for the future.

He said an update to the existing Atomic Energy Licensing Act (Act 304) 1984 would allow Malaysia to engage its neighbours which are developing nuclear energy programmes and respond to global security and safety issues.

“The updated atomic energy law includes provisions based on the latest international nuclear treaties and conventions, which Malaysia can be State Party to those treaties and conventions.

“This will enable Malaysia to ensure the safety, security, safeguards and liability protection of the nuclear power plants to be built in neighbouring countries,” he added.

On Tuesday, The Star reported Jementah assemblyman Tan Chen Choon as saying that the Federal Government intended to build the nuclear plants within the next eight years.

Claiming that Mah had made a statement to that effect, Tan told the state assembly that the government was apparently in the final process of drafting the Control of Atomic Energy to kickstart the nuclear project.-thestar