A worker fixes the electric cables in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 6, 2011.
Thailand froze its plans to build nuclear plants following the crisis in Japan, but reversed course in the fall. At an energy conference in Singapore in November, Thai officials said the country could not abandon nuclear development with electricity demands expected to increase 7% per year for the next 20 years. The country now expects to phase-in nuclear plants by 2014. Thailand, which generates nearly 70% of its electricity from natural gas, will have to battle villagers and environmentalists who have formed the Network of People Against Nuclear Power Plants in protest of the proposed plants, notes the Bangkok Post. Under its current 20-year plan, Thailand will have five plants up and running in the next ten years.