Govt goes ahead with nuclear plant plan
Govt goes ahead with nuclear plant plan
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Power in the country, it seems, is going nuclear again.
Seeking solutions to the steady increase of energy demand in
the country amid declining oil output, the government has decided
to go ahead with plans to construct nuclear power plants, with
the first one to begin construction in 2010.
Speaking in the launch of the blueprint on the development of
country's energy industry, the National Atomic Energy Agency
(Batan) chief Soedyartomo Soentono said that the first 1,000-
megawatt (MW) nuclear power plant was expected to be delivered in
2016.
Three more plants of similar capacity, which will be built in
Muria in Central Java, will follow in 2017, 2023, and 2024,
respectively, he said on Friday.
"Nuclear plants can produce power at about 3.5 U.S. cents per
kilowatt-hour (kwh), if their capacity is above 600 MW each,"
Soentono said.
State power distributor Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) at
present spends about 6 U.S. cents to produce 1 kwh of electricity
using oil.
On the nuclear road map, the government aims to reduce the
usage of oil to produce energy, which stands currently at up to
55 percent, to between 10 percent and 15 percent by 2020.
Gas usage is targeted to rise from 31 percent this year to 39
percent in 2020 and coal from 11 percent to 38 percent. New and
renewable sources are expected to rise from 0.2 percent currently
to 4 percent in 2020.
The question of security has always caused great debate when
considering plans to build power plants in the country.
The plan's detractors point to country's less-than-stellar
safety standards and the Chernobyl power station meltdown in the
Ukraine in 1986 where radiation poisoning killed 30 people at the
time and continues to kill or deform hundreds of others.
Soentono said the technology had advanced greatly since
Chernobyl and the project would be conducted with utmost care.
"We are not building another Chernobyl," he said.
"Failure is not tolerated in nuclear plants. If the plant in
Indonesia fails, plans to build plants all over the world may be
dropped," he said.
If the history of nuclear power in this country is any
indication, however, the nuclear naysayers should not lose any
sleep. For more than 40 years, successive governments have talked
up building nuclear power plants but none have ever been
constructed.
Soentono said Indonesia had been conducting nuclear studies
since the mid-1960s. A study to build a power plant was completed
in 1986, but it did not materialize. Another one was updated in
1996, but was halted when the monetary crisis hit.
"We did another study using post-crisis data. It was completed
in 2002," said Soentono.
To be able to start construction in 2010, the government has
to get all required site permits by 2006. A tender to build the
planned power plant is expected to commence in 2008.
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Power in the country, it seems, is going nuclear again.
Seeking solutions to the steady increase of energy demand in
the country amid declining oil output, the government has decided
to go ahead with plans to construct nuclear power plants, with
the first one to begin construction in 2010.
Speaking in the launch of the blueprint on the development of
country's energy industry, the National Atomic Energy Agency
(Batan) chief Soedyartomo Soentono said that the first 1,000-
megawatt (MW) nuclear power plant was expected to be delivered in
2016.
Three more plants of similar capacity, which will be built in
Muria in Central Java, will follow in 2017, 2023, and 2024,
respectively, he said on Friday.
"Nuclear plants can produce power at about 3.5 U.S. cents per
kilowatt-hour (kwh), if their capacity is above 600 MW each,"
Soentono said.
State power distributor Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) at
present spends about 6 U.S. cents to produce 1 kwh of electricity
using oil.
On the nuclear road map, the government aims to reduce the
usage of oil to produce energy, which stands currently at up to
55 percent, to between 10 percent and 15 percent by 2020.
Gas usage is targeted to rise from 31 percent this year to 39
percent in 2020 and coal from 11 percent to 38 percent. New and
renewable sources are expected to rise from 0.2 percent currently
to 4 percent in 2020.
The question of security has always caused great debate when
considering plans to build power plants in the country.
The plan's detractors point to country's less-than-stellar
safety standards and the Chernobyl power station meltdown in the
Ukraine in 1986 where radiation poisoning killed 30 people at the
time and continues to kill or deform hundreds of others.
Soentono said the technology had advanced greatly since
Chernobyl and the project would be conducted with utmost care.
"We are not building another Chernobyl," he said.
"Failure is not tolerated in nuclear plants. If the plant in
Indonesia fails, plans to build plants all over the world may be
dropped," he said.
If the history of nuclear power in this country is any
indication, however, the nuclear naysayers should not lose any
sleep. For more than 40 years, successive governments have talked
up building nuclear power plants but none have ever been
constructed.
Soentono said Indonesia had been conducting nuclear studies
since the mid-1960s. A study to build a power plant was completed
in 1986, but it did not materialize. Another one was updated in
1996, but was halted when the monetary crisis hit.
"We did another study using post-crisis data. It was completed
in 2002," said Soentono.
To be able to start construction in 2010, the government has
to get all required site permits by 2006. A tender to build the
planned power plant is expected to commence in 2008.