Thursday, March 17, 2011

Nuclear energy for Singapore? A second look at Singapore's information management and PR strategy for nuclear energy

The "pre-feasibility study" on nuclear energy is said to walk the ground covered by an earlier document.

If the hearsay is true, the Singapore Government should declassify its earlier study on nuclear energy as this would help Singaporeans understand the issues involved. Declassifying the rumoured document would give credit to the team of civil servants who assessed the issue in-depth, and would honour the memory of one who rose to become a minister of state and has since died.

Saying the decision on nuclear energy will take "a long time" and having our Prime Minister envision that a nuke power station would be built within his lifetime sends mixed signals. In politics, nothing is carved in stone but it does not help when the same PM ruled out nuclear energy in 2007. For more, please click here. This sort of public relations flip flop leaves people feeling confused and taken for granted.

No nuclear energy plans yet for S'pore but study in the works
Source: Today Online 04:46 AM Mar 17, 2011

Responding to MediaCorp's queries, Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) reiterated that it "will be a long time" before the Government makes any decision on nuclear energy.

According to MTI, the Government was in the midst of a "pre-feasibility study" on nuclear energy. The pre-feasibility study is to explore whether Singapore can even begin to consider nuclear energy.

The MTI said: "Safety is a very important consideration and is one of the key areas being studied."

It added: "We are closely monitoring and learning from the developments in Japan."

Last November, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had said that while a nuclear power project was not scheduled to start any time soon, a nuclear plant could be built in Singapore "during my lifetime". ESTHER NG

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