WEEK 5: SUMMARY/READER'S RESPONSE DRAFT #4: CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION

In the article “How can Southeast Asia’s clean energy transition be sped up?”, Ha (2019) wrote on experts who addressed how Southeast Asia (SEA) should implement various methods to beget green energy production. According to Ha, Moniz, who is the Chief Executive of the Energy Futures and Nuclear Threat Initiative, stated that deploying an array of "low-carbon technologies and solutions" in SEA is vital to reducing emissions. Moniz also mentioned that Singapore is inept for the usage of solar and wind power due to having limited natural resources and space and may reap more from nuclear fusion or hydrogen power. Ha also says that implementing such methods is not cost efficient to meet the objective of the Paris Agreement. Ha also mentioned that Wong, the Group Chief Executive of utilities company Singapore Power, believes that balancing energy consumption rates is more critical than creating a new energy source to suit Singaporeans' current lifestyle. Ins contrast to Wong who states that SEA should be looking into energy production and storage along with the consumption, Ha mentions the Ecosperity report, in which it is stated that it would be more beneficial for SEA if energy conservation methods were emphasised more while accommodating growing economic needs. Although nuclear fusion is viable in being a new energy source, currently, the energy produced is less than what is required to sustain the process. Furthermore, potential radiation exposure for neighbouring populations and inefficiency are also disadvantages, especially if adopted by a small country such as Singapore. Instead, the country should focus on energy conserving technologies due to the country's constraints in space and dense population.  

Having said that, the process of nuclear fusion research is currently at a stage where the reactor consumes a larger amount of energy than it produces, which is known as “parasitic power drain" (Gascon, 2012). One of the contributing factors is the maintenance of essential machineries supplementing the reactor. The essential machineries that are keeping the reactor running requires a large amount of energy for them to be consistently running. Additionally, the colossal amount of heat generated requires the coolants to consume a large amount of energy (75-100 Megawatts) to suppress it. Additional costs may even be incurred by purchasing power from the regional grid if the fusion output is interrupted. The large amount of energy required for nuclear fusion and its purpose is further described in an article by Gascon et al (2017). This can be compared to existing energy renewal technologies such as hydro and solar energy, which require

lesser energy to sustain. This means that nuclear fusion would be inefficient to be developed in Singapore.

Secondly, nuclear fusion would also face the challenge of land scarcity which has always been a problem in Singapore. Paired with its dense population, the country would be a poor host for a new nuclear fusion reactor. Although a nuclear fusion reactor may not emit as much radiation as a nuclear fission reactor and any accidents would be more containable, in a small country like Singapore, the scale of any incident would still be significant. It was mentioned by S.Ho et al (2019) that it is challenging to locate new nuclear power plants and prepare ideal contingency plans due to Singapore’s land scarcity. In another article, S.F Ho et al (2021) mentions “findings from an extensive study conducted in 2012 concluded that the risks of existing nuclear technology outweighed its benefits, given the country’s small land area and high population density.” 

Lastly, the building of nuclear fusion plants may not be well received by the citizens due to their perception of nuclear radiation. Although the minimal radiation emitted can be well contained and pales in comparison to that emitted in the nuclear fission process, citizens may not appreciate the reasoning due to bad past experiences. A few examples of such unfavourable incidents would be "The Chernobyl Incident in 1986, Russia" and "Fukushima nuclear incident 2011, Japan" S.F Ho et al (2021) . These ghastly incidents have cause people to have strong reactions of rejection to having any nuclear related structures within the proximity of their living quarters. 

However, it can be argued that due to improving construction technology, the energy consumption of nuclear plants has been reduced. The amount of energy produced as compared to what the reactor requires has also been slowly balanced to make the output more than what is required to sustain the process. As mentioned in an article by Ridgway (2021), "over 20 private ventures in the UK, US, Europe, China and Australia" have been researching on making a reactor being able to “produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for every 50 megawatts of input heating power” by December 2025. The radiation emitted during nuclear fusion will have harmful effects to the human body. However, the aftereffects can be minor and does not pose a threat if proper isolation procedures were taken.  

In conclusion, even though nuclear fusion energy may be more viable for ASEAN in the future as technology progresses, it may still not be as viable to Singapore due to land scarcity and materials to sustain it. Hence, it would be more viable for Singapore to adopt renewable energy technologies instead.

References:

Ha, T. (2019, July 19). How can Southeast Asia's Clean Energy Transition be sped up? Eco-

Business. https://www.eco-business.com/news/how-can-southeast-asias-clean-energy-transition-be-sped-up/ 

Ho, S. et al. (2019, February). Online, offline, or word-of-mouth?

Complementary media usage patterns and credibility perceptions of nuclear energy information in Southeast Asia. Energy Research & Social Science, 48, 46-56. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2214629618304468?token=D31DEDDFC859DA95547F9233EF24F3A0AAA09687F4DB9C207A4BADDEC592559C40CE20DD88B9E0D12AFA1B2FE97ACFEC&originRegion=eu-west-1&originCreation=20220217061948  

Ho, S. el al. (2021, September). Why support nuclear energy? The roles of citizen

knowledge, trust, media use, and perceptions. Energy Research & Social Science, 79. https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2214629621002486?token=C0C3F2EC2AC728EBD58A6D2FBE8C8041773520C751AEAB8D918FDB6653881BECC1FAD80C328393ADC8DC5BB0BDA4A64F&originRegion=eu-west-1&originCreation=20220217055508  

Ridgway, A. (2021, December 03). Why the promise of nuclear fusion is no longer a pipe dream. 

Science Focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/fusion-power-future/ 

Gascon, J et al. (2012). Design, Challenges and Key Features for the ITER Electrical Power

Distribution.https://ans.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.13182/FST12-A13395?needAccess=true