ASEAN rethinking nuclear energy use

Before the current crisis in Japan, there was a growing consensus, in ASEAN in particular, that nuclear power was the cleaner, greener and better energy option. To use fossil fuels, renewable energy resources and other alternatives can be costly and greatly impact the climate. At this juncture, so the conventional wisdom goes, it is important ASEAN devise a policy with a diverse energy portfolio but also with a nuclear energy option. Other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia have followed this path.

Despite this realization, ASEAN has been slow in putting together common protocols and standards regarding civilian nuclear use. In 2010, ASEAN agreed that the Nuclear Energy Cooperation Sub Sector Network would serve as the key body to assist the ASEAN members in their civilian nuclear energy cooperation but there has been little progress since then. This inertia has a long history.

In 1971 after ASEAN adopted the doctrine of Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) to protect itself from all possibilities of external interventions, the senior officials begun to work on a no-nuke treaty, known as the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (SEANWFZ). ASEAN was a latecomer. At the time, Latin America and Africa had already established a nuclear weapons free zone as part of their efforts to promote world peace and security.

Over two decades of political uncertainties in the region, the SEANWFZ treaty was finally ready for the ASEAN leaders' signatures in 1995 during the fifth ASEAN summit in Bangkok. There was one major concern at that time—the U.S. attitude towards the treaty. The incident of 1984 between the U.S. and New Zealand was still fresh in the mind of ASEAN leaders, who did not want to strain their relations with the U.S. Wellington refused to allow the American aircraft carriers with nuclear weapons to enter its maritime territory. It took more than a decade to heal the broken friendship.

Although the treaty mentioned the peaceful use of nuclear energy and radiological safety regime, it was mainly focused on the intention of nuclear powers. Since the SEANWFZ came into force in 1997, ASEAN has been urging all nuclear powers to accede to the treaty. Some of them including China and Russia have expressed the readiness. Today, ASEAN and the U.S. continue to discuss the SEANWFZ terms, especially those focused on the exclusive economic zones and continental shelves in the no-nuke areas. Two years ago, the grouping made initiative contacts with India and Pakistan — the two Asian nuclear powers outside the non-proliferation regime.

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