Should Malaysia build a nuclear power plant?

Unlike a coal or gas power plant, a nuclear power plant can be considered green as it emits very little CO2 into the atmosphere. Then again, the same can be said of solar, wind and hydroelectric power plants as these are all not dependant on the use of fossil fuels.

Last year, the former Minister of Energy, Water & Communications mentioned that Malaysia will eventually use nuclear energy. Now that we have a new Minister and a renamed Ministry of Energy, Green Technologies and Water, will we soon see the building of a nuclear power plant?
Before any such plan is unveiled, let's educate ourselves.

A nuclear power plant generates radioactive waste

Power plants that depend on atomic energy don't operate that differently from a typical coal-burning power plant. The key difference between the two plants is the method of heating the water. While older plants burn fossil fuels, nuclear plants depend on the heat that occurs during nuclear fission, when one atom splits into two. When the water is heated, it turns into steam which drives a turbine, which spins a generator to produce power. On average, a nuclear power plant annually generates 20 metric tons of used nuclear fuel, classified as high-level radioactive waste.However, despite the astonishing amount of radioactive waste it generates, modern nuclear power plants are able to manage the waste well. There is danger of the waste leaking and affecting public health only if we were to hire someone like Homer Simpson to manage that.

A nuclear power plant can be used to build nuclear weapons
A nuclear power plant works by enriching uranium. To generate electricity, we will need to enrich uranium by only 2-3 percent. However, if anyone happened to be feeling ambitious and decide to secretly enrich the uranium up to 90 percent, he will be able to build nuclear weapons.Once you operate a nuclear power plant, the international watchdogs will be keeping an eye on you, and it will be almost impossible to secretly enrich uranium by up to 90 percent.

Other options 
Some time ago, we soaked 700sq km of rainforests in deep water to build a hydroelectric dam. After that, we refrained from using the electricity generated because it was discovered that the building of undersea cables to transmit the electricity from Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia would be too high. We could still build the undersea cables.

So what do you think? Should Malaysia build a nuclear power plant?