| GEO Business | | Southeast Asia looks to nuclear energy: report | Updated at: 1028 PST, Friday, June 11, 2010
 MANILA: Southeast Asia's energy-hungry economies are exploring the nuclear option to keep up with escalating power demand in a region of more than half a billion people.
Vietnam plans to make its first nuclear plant operational in 10 years, while Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are all exploring the feasibility of tapping atomic energy.
“Everybody wants aircon, everybody wants the latest appliances, so all these translate into demand for electricity,” says Anthony Jude, director for the energy and water division with the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Philippines built a nuclear plant in the 1970s but it was never operated commercially because of safety concerns and alleged corruption in the contract process.
Jude said any country looking at nuclear power will have to prepare itself for the long haul.
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