Only 2.14 per cent of Malaysians are confident with the government agencies' ability to regulate the nuclear technology in preventing any untoward incidents, a National Energy Security Survey (NESS) found.

The survey was carried out by Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (AWER).

AWER president S. Piarapakaran said about 35 per cent of Malaysian surveyed are of the opinion that government agencies are not able to regulate nuclear technology.

The survey also found the that 62.87 per cent Malaysians are not sure on the ability of Malaysian agencies to regulate nuclear technology.

“These data only shows the lack of confidence of Malaysians when it comes to the ability of Malaysian agencies to regulate nuclear technology to prevent any nuclear related incidents,” he said.

The survey was to establish a baseline data on energy related issues. The sampling was developed by Department of Statistics Malaysia.

The government through the Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation plan to build the country’s first nuclear power plant around 2025 but the idea has been criticised by many fearing the dangers of nuclear plant.

He said only 20.66% of Malaysians was confident that Malaysia has the expert workforce to manage nuclear power plant.

“Unfortunately, 79.34% of Malaysians are not confident that Malaysia has the expert workforce to manage nuclear power plant facility,” he said.

Meanwhile, on disposing waste materials, Piarapakaran said 73.31% of Malaysians opined that it is not fair to dispose radioactive waste materials to other countries.

“In other word, while Malaysians do not want such an issue in their own backyard, in general Malaysians also opined that it is wrong to dispose such harmful materials to other countries,” he said.

He said based on the survey, the government need to immediately address the core issues surrounding nuclear power plant construction.

“These issues are energy mix policy and demand side management, location of nuclear power plant, nuclear power plant safety, decommissioning cost, human capital, spent fuel management and actual long term impact to electricity tariff,” he said.

The survey also noted that 34.44% of Malaysians are concerned about the health impact of the nuclear plant to them and their family.

“A total of 16.22 per cent of Malaysians who are concerned about the impact of radioactive waste to the environment while another 12.75% of Malaysians are concerned about explosion or radioactive materials leakage,” he said.

He said the three responses: health impact, radioactive waste impact to environment and nuclear explosion and leakage indicate that 63.41% of Malaysians are concerned about nuclear power plant's safety.

He said response by 66.61% of Malaysians echoes AWER's stand that the government must develop a short term, midterm and long term energy mix policy as well as demand management strategies first before proceed to build a nuclear power plant.

When the respondents were asked if government should disclose the proposed locations for the nuclear power plant to receive effective feedback from public, 69.2 per cent of Malaysians opined that the government must reveal these locations first.