PUTRAJAYA, July 20 — The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government does not plan to build nuclear power plants or explore nuclear energy, minister Yeo Bee Yin said.

The energy, green technology, science, climate change and environment minister also said the Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation, the regulatory agency for the nuclear sector under the Prime Minister’s Department, will be closed in the near future.

“Plans for nuclear power plants will be cancelled and some corporations will also be abolished, there’s no difficulty in doing this because the previous government did not sign any contracts for this,” Yeo said in an interview with Malay Mail.

“Nuclear power is not in our sight because there are many other technologies reaching parity, they can generate electricity at the same competitiveness as conventional technologies.

“There are many other renewable energy solutions offering this, nuclear is obsolete. We have biomass, biogas and solar energy,” added Yeo.

The Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation previously stated that having a nuclear power plant as a part of the country’s mixed strategy for energy would be beneficial for Malaysia.

The previous BN government initially planned to build two nuclear power plants by 2030.

Then-Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri told The Malaysian Reserve last February that Malaysia needed alternative energy sources, pointing out that over 90 per cent of the country’s power sources came from fossil fuels.