Indonesia 'can make safe nuclear power'

Indonesia 'can make safe nuclear power'

JAKARTA (JP): A top energy official claimed yesterday that
Indonesia had all the safety technology required to prevent
accidents, even on the magnitude of Chernobyl, should it decide
to go nuclear.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar, the
National Atomic Energy Agency (Batan) Director General M. Iyos R.
Subki said that such "defense-in-depth" technology had long been
available.

"We can overcome all spectrums of nuclear power plant
accidents, including the technology to overcome an accident such
as that of Chernobyl," Iyos said, referring to the fatal nuclear
plant accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986.

Defense-in-depth technology meant six hierarchical protection
layers plus two radioactive mitigation layers surrounding a core
reactor which could minimize the possibility of radioactive
leakage in the event of a nuclear accident, Iyos said.

There has been much debate over whether Indonesia has the
know-how to contain a nuclear catastrophe in light of the
government's plan to build a nuclear power plant.

The government says that alternative sources of energy must be
found to supplement the fast depleting traditional sources of
energy such as oil and natural gas.

But Iyos could not say when the government would begin
building the plant in Ujung Lemah Abang, at the foot of the
dormant volcano Muria in northern Central Java province.

"It could be in 2003, 2005, or 2006.... it depends on a
consensus between the government and the House of
Representatives," he said. "But, the country will be needing
electricity from nuclear energy within 10 years."

The nuclear plant in Muria is designed to generate about 800
megawatts of electricity.

Iyos refused to reveal where the toxic radioactive waste from
the nuclear plant would be stored, but said that a domestic
location had been chosen.

Nevertheless he conceded that the government had seen nuclear
energy as the last option. But this did not mean that nuclear
energy would be excluded from the country's "energy sources mix"
policy.

"Nuclear will be part of our energy sources mix to produce
electricity after hydropower, natural gas, coal, biomass and
wind," he said.

The special assistant to the director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), John Tilemann, said:
"Compared to other energy sources, nuclear waste is relatively
small in quantity and relatively condensed (in canisters)... it
can therefore be put into the ground in a geologically stable
formation."

Tilemann and Iyos opened the three-day Public Information
Seminar for Mass Media and Top Level Government Officials
yesterday. The seminar is cosponsored by Batan and the IAEA.

Another Batan official, Arifin S. Kustiono, told The Jakarta
Post that a decision to proceed with the nuclear plan was
pending.

"Technically we (the agency) are ready, but the political
decision is (for the government) to make," Arifin said.

He said the country already had a legal instrument -- 1997 Law
No. 10 on Nuclear Energy -- to ensure the proper development of a
nuclear power plant.

Arifin said that any decision to build a nuclear power plant
should consider the zoning of new industrial developments, in
densely populated Java or outside Java.

"If the industrialization zoning is to go eastwards as has
planned, then we won't need a nuclear power plant. Otherwise, we
will need one," he said.

It has been predicted that should industrialization zoning
continue in Java, there will be 7,000 megawatts of electricity
needed by homes and industries in Java and Bali in the
foreseeable future. (aan)