Thailand Nuclear Power Sites To Be Named In May

[webfact]

Three nuclear power sites to be named in May

By Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Energy Ministry will finalise by May the three potential sites for nuclear power plants, with Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat likely to make the final cut, a ministry source said yesterday.

The source said Burn and Roe Asia will submit its feasibility study on the nuclear power plant project and potential locations to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in May.

The company has already reduced 14 locations down to five, with two in Surat Thani, one in Nakhon Si Thammarat, one in Trat and one in Nakhon Sawan.

Chavalit Pichalai, deputy director-general of the Energy Policy and Planning Office, said that after the three locations are selected, a committee would prepare all plans, such as legal, regulatory commercial and industrial infrastructure, technology-exchange and development, safety and environmental protection, and public relations.

It would also draft the plan to set up the nuclear power plant.

The whole package will be submitted to the national power policy committee early next year for approval.

The 2010-2030 power development plan calls for five nuclear plants with combined capacity of five gigawatts to be set up. Two 1GW plants will be set up in 2020 and 2021, followed by the rest from 2024-2025.

The national power policy committee has also asked the Energy Ministry to prepare a back-up plan in case the nuclear plants cannot be set up.

-- The Nation 2010-03-18

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[Thormaturge]

So we are being given advance warning as to the location of South East Asia's Chernobyl.

[tonywebster]

I am not a religious man but I think now is the time to find god, if Thailand get this capability we will all be visiting his sooner rather than later.

I can't see breeze blocks stopping leakage

[johna]

Don't worry it will take longer to build and, be a bigger gold mine than Suvarnabhumi.

[LeungKen]

'

N.B. Add to shopping list :-

: Amulet to ward off radiation.

[Humphrey Bear]

Hopefully Thailand will be using Weastern technology and Western engineering, together with Western supervision.

I have been dealing lately with the Chinese funded proposal to renew the building of a nuclear plant in Bangladesh - and this scares me shitless. I have experienced both good (Sinopec) and bad (everyone else) Chinese construction on several projects and their engineering is very poor, if done at all. One power plant in Indonesia (coal-fired) they virtually designed as they built.

Western technology is very safe - witness the French power scene, where Areva and others are masters of the art of producing non-failure nuclear plants.

ut I still hope the Thais keep these plants down in the Muslim provinces and forget about Trat.

[bdenner]

What's with all the doom and gloom? Obviously Thailand does not have the resources or expertise to engineer such a facility, but definitely need more power generation. Nuclear is the obvious choice so what's wrong with contracting/leasing the technology from the Germans, French, US or even the Russians. They build and run it as a private enterprise as is the case with most major infrastructure, world wide, these days. OK there has been 2 major accidents but we are in the 21st century and over 50 years experience so IMO there is no problem.

What's the alternative? And we are talking of a Base Load Power Station not some piss farting wind farm.

[sangfroid]

I am not a religious man but I think now is the time to find god, if Thailand get this capability we will all be visiting his sooner rather than later.

I can't see breeze blocks stopping leakage

Before building one perhaps they could practice on the Sukhumvit Rd footpaths first

Edited March 18, 2010 by sangfroid

[brahmburgers]

I am not a religious man but I think now is the time to find god, if Thailand get this capability we will all be visiting him sooner rather than later. I can't see breeze blocks stopping leakage

'N.B. Add to shopping list :- : Amulet to ward off radiation.

Put some big ornate amulets on the walls of the reactor too.

Seriously though

The source said Burn and Roe Asia will submit its feasibility study on the nuclear power plant project and potential locations to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in May.

- from Nation article

Who did Burn and Roe consult, I wonder, and how much did their feasibility study cost? One of the big tests will be if/when there will be open discussions with community members, where the reactors will be sited. Let me guess: the meetings (if they take place at all) will be closed to locals, other than those who are boosters or have something to gain from the contracts - such as jobs.

here's a 72 page e-booklet (741 Kb on pdf) which articulates several reasons why Thailand should not go nuclear.

Below is a map which estimates possible sites for nuclear reactors in Thailand.

[tonywebster]

Did the head of TAT know about this a few days ago when he declared Thailand to be safe

[tonywebster]

I am not a religious man but I think now is the time to find god, if Thailand get this capability we will all be visiting his sooner rather than later.

I can't see breeze blocks stopping leakage

Before building one perhaps they could practice on the Sukhumvit Rd footpaths first

They can't get the traders off them long enough to repair them, to be fair the pavements here are a disgrace, and how the hel_l anyone would get around in a wheelchair is beyond me, even pushchairs, people must struggle. I can understand when someone has set up a stall but when there are fixed features such as phone boxes and cross walks blocking the way I can not understand.

Will thailand get outside help with these projects, will the contracts go to companies outside of Thailand that have experience in building these reactors or will face play a part with 'well if they can do it so can we'. A frightening prospect, still, it can become the hub of nuclear disasters.

[maxpower]

Pattaya center should be their first choice with Pattaya south as the second.

[tonywebster]

Pattaya center should be their first choice with Pattaya south as the second.

It seems pattaya has already been hit by nuclear fall out judging by some of the specimens I saw on my one and only trip there

[lensta]

Hopefully Thailand will be using Weastern technology and Western engineering, together with Western supervision.

I have been dealing lately with the Chinese funded proposal to renew the building of a nuclear plant in Bangladesh - and this scares me shitless. I have experienced both good (Sinopec) and bad (everyone else) Chinese construction on several projects and their engineering is very poor, if done at all. One power plant in Indonesia (coal-fired) they virtually designed as they built.

Western technology is very safe - witness the French power scene, where Areva and others are masters of the art of producing non-failure nuclear plants.

ut I still hope the Thais keep these plants down in the Muslim provinces and forget about Trat.

Yes, hopefully Thailand will use western technology and companies to build the power plants but that is not a given, it will may well be the company that is willing to give the largest amount of cash up as incentive will get the contract. The really scary part is that they will probably be maintained by Thais and we all know how good Thais are at preventative maintenance.

[Payboy]

The national power policy committee has also asked the Energy Ministry to prepare a back-up plan in case the nuclear plants cannot be set up.

Luckily the design of the back-up plan is almost complete and already in the test phase.

[tangcoral]

Excuse my lack of knowledge, but would this decrease the cost of electricity for consumers?

Will electricity be cheaper?

[maxpower]

Yes, hopefully Thailand will use western technology and companies to build the power plants but that is not a given, it will may well be the company that is willing to give the largest amount of cash up as incentive will get the contract. The really scary part is that they will probably be maintained by Thais and we all know how good Thais are at preventative maintenance.

I hate to break this to you, but Thais are maintaining the aircraft you fly in and out of LOS on.

Joking aside, educated Thais make pretty good technicians.

[maxpower]

Excuse my lack of knowledge, but would this decrease the cost of electricity for consumers?

Will electricity be cheaper?

If it does then those running the Electricity Co need to go back to business school.

[jamesjdaly]

Three nuclear power sites to be named in May

Yeah!! Moe, Curly & Larry!

[Gonzo the Face]

I think the one to be built in Pattaya is to be called .... " The Big Boom Boom "

[Gonzo the Face]

.... and at some time in the future, heaven forbid it did ever blow... it could be referred to as " The big Boom Boom, boom "

.... the devil made me do it......

no not Thaksin, the other one.....

[ronz28]

The most expensive and dangerous technology in the world to produce electricity. Who is pushing this idiot plan??? Someone being paid off by a contractor who doesn't care he will forever contaminate Thailand, I suspect.

Thailand has plenty of wind, sun and some natural gas to produce electricity.

[jayjayjayjay]

I am not a religious man but I think now is the time to find god, if Thailand get this capability we will all be visiting him sooner rather than later. I can't see breeze blocks stopping leakage

'N.B. Add to shopping list :- : Amulet to ward off radiation.

Put some big ornate amulets on the walls of the reactor too.

Seriously though

The source said Burn and Roe Asia will submit its feasibility study on the nuclear power plant project and potential locations to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in May.

- from Nation article

Who did Burn and Roe consult, I wonder, and how much did their feasibility study cost? One of the big tests will be if/when there will be open discussions with community members, where the reactors will be sited. Let me guess: the meetings (if they take place at all) will be closed to locals, other than those who are boosters or have something to gain from the contracts - such as jobs.

here's a 72 page e-booklet (741 Kb on pdf) which articulates several reasons why Thailand should not go nuclear.

Below is a map which estimates possible sites for nuclear reactors in Thailand.

I love this. Your anti anything. But, your happy to travel, use lights, use your computer, use a TV sometimes, how about walking outside with public lighting, maybe the ELECTRIC lifts in your condo!!!! Don't tell me you are sitting in a tin roof shack in Issan with no power and live on a Sufficiency Principled lifestyle. It annoys me to the hilt at those who use any type of industrial luxury but oppose all projects which serve their own addiction! Nuclear is not the best solution, but it beats the global warming effects of coal power.

Thailand utilizes Hydro to a maximum, ethanol is being implemented at greater cost to consumer, tidal is not yet viable, neither is solar, neither is any western society able to cope without either coal or nuclear as a baseline power. Easy to criticize, a million times more difficult to be proactive in the solution. How about solving the problem of how to create nuclear fusion. You can use all the electric the oceans can provide once one of these start up. You'll also stop global warming, oh, and be very rich.

[ronz28]

Did Thailand ever replace the battery in its one Tsunami warning buoy that the US contributed to them or is that still too expensive to protect Phuket?... And they will safely oversee the design, build and operation of nuclear power plants? BS

[TheWalkingMan]

As this will be the first time for Thailand to have a Nuclear Power plant, I hope that western management, with the power to enforce things, will be put in place.

TheWalkingMan

[thaiedward]

All of it most interesting.

Most European nukes are of the 'heavy-water' variety and can boast about their safety records which are rather positive. I'm not familiar with the the design parameters of Chernobyl's facility which, one might suspect, was intended to deliver champagne on a beer budget.

In the USA, BWR (boiling-water-reactor) was the technology of choice purveyed to all potential prospects (hitherto, somewhat independent power generators) who were invited to enjoin the "national power grid" and were actually lured into "power-wheeling" by the big boys who love to own a business that gets to send a bill to so many addresses.

The utilities who bought into this scenario also fell into the 'pork-barrel' where OPM (tax-payer's monies in these instances) are milked to satisfy ever increasing budget demands resulting from a regulatory agency whose primary purpose is to prolong the process (milking the cash-cow) simply by moving the furniture around (new safety systems, etc.).

Nukes require an endless supply of water and when they don't have that, they can fail. The Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania (USA) was a Babcock-Wilcox design with 'single-pass' (only one, singular water-path to and from the reactor's containment). From what little I know, Chernobyl's catastrophe may have resulted from a quite-similar circumstance. Multiple-Pass water circulation is one way around that issue yet even the prospect of having a nuke scares the hel_l out of people and understandably so. I decline to talk about uranium enrichment technology. Whether or not there's a God to be recognized, it's difficult for me to imagine that any of us should ever intend to cause harm unto others.

Last year, I enjoyed meeting with principal persons in BKK. In the course of things, I inquired about LOS's new nuke whereupon I was shunted toward a principal adviser who invited me to join him for lunch...next week. No answers.

I wonder if they had any pertinent technical information.

Kind regards

[livinthailandos]

Never thought I would be more concerned but I"ll try to say this as best I can. Thailand and a nuclear power plant

1. Rules & Regulations here don't seem to be reinforced here

2. Due to high levels of corruption how much actual money would go to the power plant

3. Thailand isn't exactly known for taking safety seriously on many issues. ( you can tell me the airplanes, but a airplane crash will make global headlines, so they have to be more safe plus if they got as bad as garuda airlines many foreign countries would black list the airline )

4. By some under the table payment power plant goes through, would it actually be finished or left half finish, Don't have much faith in the industries in thailand after all look how long its taking just to get 3G, how about proper roads and water plants or sewage

5. Lets consider the airport it was built on swampy land in my opinion infrastructure was never really done with proper standards in mind on top on that insider the airport, it looks like it was never finished, but maybe the airport is some kind of design nobody has ever seen before the design of ( It never got finished ) or (never actually got started)

[brahmburgers]

tidal is not yet viable, neither is solar,....

Solar is viable. Improvements in efficiency and lowered cost are happening month by month. It's already cheaper than nuclear, and anyone can see the many other reasons it's better than nuclear. To name a few:

>>>> fuel is free. Nuke fuel (yellowcake) comes from overseas from a very few suppliers, and any one glitch can screw up the supply.

>>>> security. Particularly important in a country with an on-going insurgency and a military that can't account for thousands of guns missing from its own compound.

>>>> Insurance. How do you calculate the rates for a policy which could affect much of Thailand and possibly territory of three neighboring countries?

>>>> Maintenance. A functioning nuke power plant in Sacramento California was shut down partly because its security personnel were taking drugs on duty. Do you think Thai security guards (and technicians) would do a better job than American? Even Japan's newest and largest nuclear plant had a radioactive breach, and they're miles ahead of Thais in tech and responsibilities.

>>>> dealing with nuclear waste. No country on the planet has a decent way to deal with spent fuel rods, not the US nor European countries nor Russia or China or Japan. Can Thailand do better?

>>>> decommissioning the plant. Eventually, all nuke plants die. Will it be shut down when it should. Will the Thai gov't (EGAT) figure, "well, it's been functioning ok for so long, what's a few years more....?"

>>>> If/when locals demonstrate to close it down (as happened with some functioning plants elsewhere), will the Thai government hold open town meetings and subject its existence to a referendum? If you believe that, then you'll believe China will give Tibet to California.

[jayjayjayjay]

Solar, there is a solar plant not 50 km from my home, it is not viable to run a country, that is my point. You just don't get it. Base power requires a constant flow of seriously high power consuming generators. All this pie in the sky of renewable fuels is great to talk about, great to develop to a point it can be used, but even the most serious of green fuel countries are struggling to achieve even moderate contributions from sustainable fuel. So, either switch off your computers or contribute time and money to the solution. PS. only those countries with either huge agricultural reserves like Brazil or huge wind exposure like Denmark are making significant headway. Thailand's ethanol projects are world class, but, there ain't no f8king wind here!!!!

[ThailandTommy]

This is a joke right?

Thailand building and managing a nuclear plant? I would imagine and hope that engineers from abroad will construct it?

I can see it now, Khun Chomai at work after a ‘Yabba’ induced ‘Samsong’ filled night at the local snooker hall, his right index finger lodged firmly knuckle deep in his nasal passage trying to dislodge the mucus from his ‘cell’ lights flashing sirens screaming, attempting to read the ‘What to do in the event of a leak’ page of his multilingual manual, multilingual being English, French, Spanish, German and Mandarin.

If ever there was a good reason to decamp from the LoS this would be it! Name one thing that has been successfully managed and or maintained by Thai’s?

Talk about delusions of grandeur Thailand should stick to what it does best, prostitution, swindling tourists and politics.

The only redeeming comment is

“The national power policy committee has also asked the Energy Ministry to prepare a back-up plan in case the nuclear plants cannot be set up.”

The best laugh I have had for a long time.