SINGAPORE - With limited options for renewable energy, Singapore is not ruling out the use of nuclear energy to cut emissions from its power sector while safeguarding the nation’s energy security – and the Republic is learning from the best minds in the field as part of the decision-making process.
These organisations include the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations agency that promotes the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies; the UK Atomic Energy Authority, which researches fusion energy; and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Currently, about 95 per cent of Singapore’s energy is generated from burning natural gas, a fossil fuel. Emissions from this sector make up about 40 per cent of the country’s total emissions.
While it is promising, the deployment of nuclear technologies can be controversial, especially after disasters involving nuclear plants in Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011. Dr Tan said then that there remain the issues of engineering challenges for fusion reactors and the low global supply of tritium – a key fuel for fusion – which affects when fusion energy will be commercialised. But Singapore will continue to identify capabilities in the local ecosystem that are fusion-relevant and where the country could play a role in the fusion supply chain, he added.