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96716
Fri, 12/25/2009 - 01:13
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Year-ender: GOVT STILL UNDECIDED OVER NUKE POWER PROJECT

By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, Dec 24 (ANTARA) - Controversies over the government's plan to set up a nuclear power plant (PLTN) to overcome the country's increasing shortage of electricity supply have caused the administration to remain undecided about the plan's implementation.

Early this month, Research and Technology Minister Suharna Surapranata said the government was determined to commence the construction of its PLTN. However, the minister at a function in East Nusa Tenggara province said on Thursday the government had not yet made any decision on when the project would be commenced.

The Research and Technology Minister made the statement after inaugurating the prototype of a hybrid power plant (PLTH) in East Nusa Tenggara.

"Until today, the government has not yet given its approval to the construction of a nuclear power plant because of security considerations. It will give priority to development of other energy sources," the minister said.

He said that in the current stage the government was still continuing its efforts to study the utilization of nuclear energy, besides those of other energy sources potentials.

Whether or not the presence of a nuclear power plant in Indonesia is now needed is still under assessment, the minister said. "I agree if the government decides not give yet its approval to the construction of the a nuclear plant," he said.

He said that the government was still giving a priority to the use of coal and geothermal as a source of energy in generating electricity.

Besides, the government is also still conducting socialization on the use of nuclear as a source of energy owing to the fact that Indonesia should have been able to operate commercially a nuclear power plant in 2016.

The target for Indonesia to operate a nuclear power plant in 2016 is contained in Law No. 17/2007 on the National Long Term Development Plan. One of its paragraph stipulates that in 2016 Indonesia should have been able to operate a nuclear power plant.

But up to now, the government has not yet decided to commence the development of a nuclear power plant.

Earlier this month, Minister Surapranata said that the government actually will not shelve its plan to build a nuclear power plant in the country. Hopefully, it construction of a nuclear power plant would be commence in 2010, the minister said early this month.

"The plan to build a nuclear power plant should not be terminated. The government is still preparing its blue print," the minister said on the sidelines of an executive meeting of the Nuclear Power Supervisory Board (Bapeten).

Surapranata said that the government had not decided who would become the operator of the nuclear power plant which according to plan would be built in Muria Peninsula, Central Java.

"The construction of a PLTN facility needs a large investment," the former researcher at the National Atomic and Energy Agency (BATAN), said. He said the option for the operator of the plant was the government (a state-owned company) or a private firm.

The minister said that in the face of the project his side was still training and educating human resources at the BATAN and Bepeten.

He said the government hoped that they would become nuclear experts in line with the plan to build the nuclear plant which was expected to commence commercial operations in 2016.

The minister said that the construction of the nuclear plant had been delayed, even since the beginning of his assignment as a researcher with the BATAN and attended a nuclear education program at the University of Indonesia in 1978. "This is regardless of the fact that the need for electricity continues to increase," he said.

In the meantime, Bapeten head Natio Lasman denied if it was said that the delay in the construction of the nuke plant had been caused by the lack of investment funds because a nuclear plant with a capacity of 1,000 MW only needed Rp20 trillion.

He said that this amount was not far from the amount of fuel oil subsidy allocation which accounted for only tens of trillion rupiah.

The nuclear power generator project has since the beginning been opposed by many quarter for security reason.

Last year, tens of non-governmental and mass organizations from Jepara, Kudus and Pati districts grouped in the Muria Nature Conservation Network (Jala Muria), called on the government to stop its nuke plant and replace it with a renewable energy project.

"The government should give priority to the development of renewable energy as Indonesia is rich in such a resource," chairman of Jala Muria, Lilo Sunaryo said at that time.

He said that the people of Jepara and other districts in the vicinity rejected the government plan to build a nuclear power plant in Muria peninsula because the risk it would create was far bigger than the benefit it would give to the people.

According to Winarno Thohir, chairman of the Reliable Fishermen Association chairman (KTNA), his organization has since in the past voiced its disagreement to the nuclear project because the peninsula is a fertile area for agriculture.

Jala Muria chairman, Sunaryo said that his network had been opposed to the nuclear plant since three years ago. "From the technological aspect, a nuclear power plant still has weaknesses even though now it has used a new generation technology which is claimed to be very safe," Sunaryo said.

That's why, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his personal disagreement to the development of a nuclear power plant in Muria peninsula during his campaign activities in Central Java recently, various quarters welcomed it positively.

The president's statement prompted various quarters to raise a positive response. "The head of state's remarks showed the government's wisdom with regard to discourse among the public over the nuclear issue," Winarno Thohir said at that time.

The IAEA data show that nuclear waste radiation would last for 24 thousand years. Therefore, Sunaryo, a nuclear turbine expert who graduated from a University in Russia, said that nuclear wastes needed a special handling for about 24 thousand years to prevent them from creating environment problems.

The peril of a nuclear incident is the main reason behind the people's opposition. The explosion of Chernobyl's nuclear reactor in Russia in 1986 and the leakage at Mihama's nuclear reactor in Japan in 2004 are still fresh in their minds. In Chernobyl, ten years after the leakage, thousands of people died of exposure to discharged radioactive material.





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