Russia to Help Cambodia With Possible Nuclear Power

Russia will help Cambodia develop a nuclear power plant to overcome the Kingdom’s massive reliance on electricity from Thailand and Vietnam, under an agreement signed during Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit here.

The significance of the deal was highlighted by Thursday’s nationwide blackout when supplies from Vietnam failed, prompting Prime Minister Hun Sen to make a late night Facebook video address to the nation to explain the outage had not been caused by a terrorist attack.

“I would like to clarify again that it’s not a politically motivated act by any group, and it’s an incident that seems not to be a terrorist at¬tack,” Mr. Hun Sen said.

“While we were transmitting power from Vietnam to Phnom Penh and distributing it to various provinces across the country, the electricity in Vietnam was cut, causing an electrical failure in Phnom Penh and other provinces using the national network.”

Cambodian officials have not given details about the Russian agreement. But Reuters reported from Russia that Sergei Kiriendo, the head of the Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom, said Russia could help with technical support, research and training if the Kingdom chooses to go ahead with the nuclear option.

“The Cambodian government is mulling … a nuclear power station,” he said. “Perhaps, it is better to begin with a research reactor and a research center in Cambodia.”

Cambodia depends heavily on imported fuel and power. Electricity in the country is among the most expensive in Southeast Asia and a common source of complaint from investors.

Cambodia is seeking $3 billion in foreign investment to build six hydropower plants by 2018 as it seeks to keep up with rising domestic power demand powered by an economy growing about 7 percent a year.

Cambodia imports almost a third of its energy needs, according to the World Bank. Additional reporting Terry Friel and Reuters.



At the present days of 2015, most of electrical energy that Cambodian people use on the daily life basis was imported from neighboring countries like Vietnam (170 Megawatt) and Thailand (120 Megawatt.)

However, a nuclear power plant could help Cambodians to have enough power for their daily life. But the power plant requires uranium as the basis substance to produce nuclear energy. If Cambodia doesn’t have its own uranium mine, it is necessary that Cambodia has to import uranium from abroad to run its nuclear power plant.

On the other hand, a nuclear power plant could cause many risks and and/or catastrophes. The lesson of Chernobyl disaster teaches us to be careful to use a nuclear power plant.

Khmer Times tried to contact Mr. Tun Lian, spokesman for Ministry of Mineral and Energy, for comment, but he declined to do so saying he did not know much about this project to build a nuclear power plant.

The insufficient energy is a chronicle problem in Cambodia, and every Cambodian household knows about that. For example, on Thursday night, the power supplies were cut off in Phnom Penh and in some provinces.

According Mr. Keo Ratanak, president of Cambodian electrical supplies company (EDC), the blackout on Thursday night was due to the power plant in Vietnam was shut down. It also meant that Cambodia is relying heavily on neighboring country in term of power supply.