Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Alvin Tan, explained further in Parliament on 4 April about the nuclear energy plans of Singapore.

He said that the Energy 2050 Committee report that was released last month is setting out a few energy options for the power sector of Singapore to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by around the year 2050.

Potential options include hydrogen, geothermal and nuclear energy.

Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy, which is more viable than solar energy and derived from the heat inside the earth, is adversely affected by Singapore’s unpredictable weather as well as the cloud cover.

However, advances in geothermal technology could see Singapore potentially harnessing geothermal heat from deep underground, and NTU is conducting studies at the moment to estimate the geothermal resource potential in parts of Singapore.

Nuclear energy

One other option is nuclear energy, with a feasibility study conducted in 2012 by the government found that conventional large reactor technologies are not suitable for the country.

But new designs have since been developed (or are being developed), like small modular reactors with better safety.

Tan said that there is a new type of nuclear energy called nuclear fusion technology, which is seeing significant interest.

Nuclear fusion technology doesn’t cause chain reactions and doesn’t produce radioactive waste, unlike the older nuclear plants which use nuclear fusion technology.

Tan said:

“Hence, nuclear fusion power plants can, at least theoretically, produce clean electricity to meet our energy needs.

Many of these advanced geothermal and nuclear technologies are still in the research and development phase and have not begun commercial operations yet.

So we will need to consider any decision to deploy new energy technologies against its safety, reliability, affordability, and environmental sustainability in Singapore’s context.

All these technologies must meet stringent standards of critical infrastructure resilience, in line with international best practices of developed countries, which have experience in ensuring the safety of such power plants.

And given the technical complexity of nuclear energy technologies, we will need to continue building our ability to better understand and assess the safety, security and environmental implications before we consider them for deployment in Singapore.”

Nuclear energy research being supported

The Singapore government is supporting relevant research of nuclear policy, science and engineering, as well as international efforts to strengthen global nuclear safety.

Singapore is also working with the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as other ASEAN member countries to help improve the preparedness of the region to a potential nuclear emergency.

Tan said that “the government will carefully study the recommendations in the committee’s report and calibrate our plans accordingly, as technologies evolve. In the meantime, we will continue to enhance energy efficiency across all sectors and encourage consumers to play their part to conserve energy.”

MP Ang Wei Neng highlighted the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in 2011, asking how the government will make sure that similar incidents won’t happen in Singapore.

Tan then replied that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants were constructed in the late 60s and used older nuclear fission technology, which is unsuitable for Singapore.

He also added that nuclear fusion technology, which is being developed around the world, has the potential to be safer.

A man is facing charges after he verbally altercation with a bus captain with comments one would describe as xenophobic.

44-year-old Nimal De Silva is contesting the charge against him that falls under the harassment act despite pleading guilty in September 2021. reported Channel News Asia (CNA)

What happened?

De Silva wore a neck gaiter instead of a regular facemask when he was boarding a bus in the vicinity of Nicoll Highway MRT.

The bus driver was not sure if a neck gaiter constitutes an approved mask and refused De Silva from boarding the bus, the bus captain then contacted his office to clarify if it is accepted.

However, De Silva did not take kindly to it and opened the bus door with the button located outside the bus and boarded the bus. He began live streaming on Facebook of the incident and said

“This is the problem when you have China people working in Singapore,” and “Speak English. You’re not in China right now.”

“You are going to go down,”

“These bastards are basically ah, playing punk. Let’s play punk together.”

Escalating

A passenger on the bus offered De Silva a facemask but De Silva refused it and disrupted the bus service.

For harassing a public worker, he can be jailed up to 1 year and/or fine $5,000

Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said on 5 April at the Home Team Science and Technology Agency’s tech summit that surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology is a double edged sword, it can keep us safer but also raises concerns about privacy.

He said that “we need to establish proper guidelines and standards on the use of technology to provide ample protection and to preserve trust and confidence.

Only with these in place can we make the best use of what technology can offer us, to improve our capability to protect our societies and people from the new dangers.”

Teo added that Singapore’s network of police cameras allow the police to sense-make and respond faster to incidents that are happening in real-time.

This has deterred crime and also reduced the time needed to solve crimes significantly.

The Singapore Police Force will extend their network of surveillance cameras to more than 200,000 by the year 2030.

Teo also revealed that to date, the police cameras have helped the police force solve more than 6,000 cases.

However, he called the use of technology a “double-edged sword” – although it has helped us deal with threats such as international terrorism and online scams, it can also be exploited by criminal organisations.

He added that Singapore’s agencies need new approaches to fight cybercrime as well as physical crimes, and that the world needs new global rules and frameworks because cybercrime is borderless.

He then urged for more cooperation internationally, saying that the TechX summit was a good example for them to share their best practices and experiences.

He said “more importantly, we need international cooperation to combat transnational and cybercrime, given their growing prevalence.

These crimes exploit the gaps and interstices in our defences at the borders, where different legal regimes and jurisdictions meet.”