Asians See Bright Nuclear Future : Economy: Demand for new power sources appears to prevail over environmental worries and safety considerations, which often stall construction elsewhere.

Nuclear power plants, increasingly rejected in the West, have a brighter future in booming Asian countries with energy shortages.

The demand for continued growth appears to prevail over safety considerations and worries of environmentalists, which often stall construction of nuclear plants elsewhere.

“I think expansion of the economy is a consistent thread with the whole of Asia . . . for expanding nuclear power,” said Mary Acland-Hood of the Uranium Institute, a trade group in London that represents 80 companies in 20 countries.

Energy demand in the region is expected to increase by 12% annually in the 1990s compared to 7% in the previous decade, according to the International Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank.

Many countries--notably India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand--will have shortages in the next century ranging up to 25% of present supply, said Shehzad Shadiq, director of energy and industry for the Asian Development Bank.

While dozens of nuclear plants are planned for Asia, there is a de facto moratorium on new ones in North America, South America and Europe.

France is the exception. It gets 75% of its electricity from 56 nuclear power stations, and the French expect their technology to play a big role in meeting Asia’s energy needs.

Pakistan has reopened talks with France on building a second nuclear plant, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto announced in November. “The nuclear power plant shall be the best example of French-Pak friendship,” she said.

The two countries reached a tentative agreement on the installation in 1990, when Bhutto was serving her first term, but the project stalled when she was ousted later that year. She was returned to power in October.

Pakistan’s first nuclear plant is in Karachi, a southern port city.

In China, the French nuclear builder Framatome is helping complete two 900-megawatt reactors at Daya Bay, near Hong Kong, that are scheduled to be running in 1994.

Beijing recently announced plans to develop a major nuclear power industry by 2000, including the manufacture and export of 1,200-megawatt generators.

“Nuclear industry and technology are a yardstick for measuring the overall strength of a country,” said Jiang Xinxiong, head of China National Nuclear Corp.

He was quoted by Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, as saying “a network of nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel factories” would provide the country with “a pillar for its international standing.”

Indonesian officials say nuclear power is needed, along with other sources of electricity, to sustain economic growth. They insist there will be no safety or environmental problems.

Critics contend that building reactors on Java, an island known for earthquakes and volcanoes, risks disaster. Greenpeace, the international environmental group, said Indonesia “could be headed for another Chernobyl.”

The explosion and fire in April, 1986, at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine was the world’s worst commercial nuclear accident. President Suharto said at the time: “With careful planning we should not have to worry too much about such a risk.”

Indonesia’s first 600-megawatt plant, powered by uranium from Australia, is supposed to be operating in 2003. It is to be built near a dormant volcano in central Java, 280 miles east of Jakarta. Provisional plans call for 12 plants in Indonesia by 2015.

Elsewhere in Asia, the picture is mixed.

Japan has 45 plants with a capacity of 35,000 megawatts and plans to increase that to 75,000 megawatts. Japan turned to the atom after the oil shock of 1973 sent prices soaring.

Korea and Taiwan also have expansion plans.

Thailand is considering a 1,000-megawatt nuclear plant that could help meet the increased demand for power by 2006, said Subhin Panyamag of the state-run electric utility.

In Malaysia, said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, “There will be no nuclear plant until we have exhausted all other methods to generate electricity.”

Malaysia now depends on hydroelectric power, natural gas, fuel oil and coal.

The Philippines might convert a $2.2-billion nuclear power station built by Westinghouse into a conventional facility, officials said after apparently failing to settle a decade-long dispute. The 620-megawatt plant was never operated because of safety concerns and allegations that Westinghouse bribed the late President Ferdinand Marcos to win the contract.

Suppliers of nuclear plants see a bright future.

“The Asia-Pacific region has the greatest market potential in the next decade,” Woodrow Williams of GE Nuclear Energy told a conference in Singapore. “We are talking in terms of $160 billion over the next 15 years.”