User:KemNuclear

Nuclear power plant in Cambodia

The "Kingdom of Cambodia" is the official English name of the country. The English "Cambodia" is an anglicisation of the French "Cambodge", which in turn is the French transliteration of the Khmer កម្ពុជា kampuciə. Kampuchea is the shortened alternative to the country's official name in Khmer ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា prĕəh riəciənaacak kampuciə. The Khmer endonym Kampuchea derives from the Sanskrit name कम्बोजदेश kambojadeśa, composed of देश deśa ("land of" or "country of") and कम्बोज kamboja, which alludes to the foundation myths of the first ancient Khmer kingdom.[26] The term Cambodia was already in use in Europe as early as 1524, since Antonio Pigafetta (an Italian explorer who followed Ferdinand Magellan in his circumnavigation of the globe) cites it in his work Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo (1524–1525) as Camogia.[27] Cambodia has an area of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 square miles) and lies entirely within the tropics, between latitudes 10° and 15°N, and longitudes 102° and 108°E. It borders Thailand to the north and west, Laos to the northeast, and Vietnam to the east and southeast. It has a 443-kilometre (275-mile) coastline along the Gulf of Thailand.[8][90]

Cambodia's landscape is characterised by a low-lying central plain that is surrounded by uplands and low mountains and includes the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and the upper reaches of the Mekong River delta. Extending outward from this central region are transitional plains, thinly forested and rising to elevations of about 650 feet (200 metres) above sea level.

To the north the Cambodian plain abuts a sandstone escarpment, which forms a southward-facing cliff stretching more than 200 miles (320 kilometres) from west to east and rising abruptly above the plain to heights of 600 to 1,800 feet (180–550 metres). This cliff marks the southern limit of the Dângrêk Mountains.

Flowing south through Cambodia's eastern regions is the Mekong River. East of the Mekong the transitional plains gradually merge with the eastern highlands, a region of forested mountains and high plateaus that extend into Laos and Vietnam. In southwestern Cambodia two distinct upland blocks, the Krâvanh Mountains and the Dâmrei Mountains, form another highland region that covers much of the land area between the Tonle Sap and the Gulf of Thailand.

In this remote and largely uninhabited area, Phnom Aural, Cambodia's highest peak rises to an elevation of 5,949 feet (1,813 metres).[91] The southern coastal region adjoining the Gulf of Thailand is a narrow lowland strip, heavily wooded and sparsely populated, which is isolated from the central plain by the southwestern highlands.

The most distinctive geographical feature is the inundations of the Tonle Sap, measuring about 2,590 square kilometres (1,000 square miles) during the dry season and expanding to about 24,605 square kilometres (9,500 square miles) during the rainy season. This densely populated plain, which is devoted to wet rice cultivation, is the heartland of Cambodia.[92] Much of this area has been designated as a biosphere reserve.[92]

Cambodia has no ambitious plan for a civil nuclear power programme for its power master plan within the next 20 years, official sources said yesterday.

A draft atomic energy law is now being drafted, which will include nuclear radiation, has reached 55 percent completion, says Victor Jona, director-general of energy at the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

He told Khmer Times that the draft law could be finalised before 2023. “However, there is still more works that needs to be done, which means that once it is finalised, the draft law has to be reviewed by relevant ministries ahead of any move to the next stage before it passes into law.”

He noted that the draft law is being assisted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world’s centre for cooperation in the nuclear field – promoting the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technology.

In bilateral talks between Prime Minister Hun Sen and an IAEA representative in 2014, Mr Hun said there would be no nuclear power development in the Kingdom. However, he did want the IAEA to help develop human resources and any draft laws relevant to nuclear technologies, especially in agriculture and the health sector.

“From now until 2040, we don’t have any plans for any civil nuclear power plant investments. Regarding whether or not we will need nuclear power to generate electricity after 2040, this will depend on current global trends,” Jona said.

He added that for the next 20 years, the potential sources for the electricity generation are coal, water, solar, wind and liquefied natural gas.

In 2016, Cambodia and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding in which Russia agreed to create the Nuclear Science and Technology Centre in the Kingdom. A year later, Cambodia and China also inked an agreement regarding nuclear energy cooperation.

Jona said after the agreement was signed, it paved the way for Cambodia to develop human resources in nuclear science and technology, allowing Cambodia official experts and some university students to get short-term training in the two countries. Regarding the Nuclear Science and Technology Centre establishment backed by Russia, he noted it may happen in the future. “To research nuclear science, we need a laboratory so this may happen in the future,” he said. A pre-feasibility study on the establishment of a nuclear power plant in Asean published by the ASEAN Centre for Energy said that the region could have its first operational civilian nuclear power plant by 2030 and perhaps two more by 2035.

According to studies, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines have been identified as frontrunners in the race to establish civilian nuclear power programmes in the region, explaining that these countries have advanced legal and regulatory frameworks, nuclear energy infrastructures and the required human resources. Cambodia’s total power supply generation increased from 2,635 megaWatts (mW) in 2018 to 3,382 mW in 2019, a 28 percent year-on-year increase.

It comprised about 33 percent from hydropower dams, 33 percent through coal-fired plants, 25 percent in imports from Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos, 7 percent from biomass and 1.3 percent from renewable sources such as wind and solar.