BANGKOK- Thailand is exploring small modular nuclear reactor technology as Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy looks to diversify its energy mix amid dwindling reserves of natural gas that produces much of its power, Prime Minister SretthaThavisin said.
“Our green transition goal is one of the most ambitious in Southeast Asia, and we have a comprehensive roadmap in place to have 50 percent of energy production be renewable by 2040,” Srettha said in a speech on Friday at an American Chamber of Commerce event in Bangkok.
Alongside green hydrogen and battery storage solutions, the country is looking at small modular reactor (SMR) power plants to make manufacturing more environmentally friendly, he said.
SMRs are advanced nuclear reactors with the capacity to generate around one-third of the electricity produced by traditional nuclear power reactors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Under a previous power development plan, Thailand’s first nuclear power plant was scheduled to begin operation in 2020 but the project was delayed after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.
