Majority of Indonesians oppose nuclear plant: Poll

Majority of Indonesians oppose nuclear plant: Poll

JAKARTA (JP): Almost 80 percent of Indonesians are against nuclear power stations being built here, according to a poll conducted recently by a leading anti-nuclear group.

The Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) announced yesterday the results of its survey of 1,000 people in eight cities in Java and areas around the Muria Peninsula, the site of a planned nuclear power plant.

The study, conducted late last year, is considered to be representative of the public sentiment over the plan, the forum said.

As many as 88 percent of respondents said the final decision of whether the country should have a nuclear power plant must be left to the people.

Seventeen percent wanted the decision to be made through a referendum among people living in the area surrounding the planned site, 48 percent wanted it made through a national referendum, and 23 percent wanted the House of Representatives to vote on it.

The forum said 42.4 percent of those questioned were students, "who represent the generation of the owners of this country in the 2000s", and only 1.7 percent were activists of non- governmental organizations.

The majority of the respondents were aged between 20 and 30, the forum said.

In a separate move yesterday, seven other NGOs joined Walhi in demanding that the government scraps the plan to build the nuclear power plant.

Calling themselves the Anti-Nuclear Community, the groups also demanded that the government gives "open access to information on all development activities, including those concerning the plan to construct a nuclear plant".

The activists also demanded that the government "punish officials who create public anxiety with conflicting statements" on the plan.

The groups criticized the National Atomic Agency, for its failure to follow "natural procedures for the establishment of a power plant".

Despite previous statements that the government will consider a nuclear plant only as a last resort, officials have been issuing statements as if the plan is already certain, the groups said.

The atomic agency chief, Djali Ahimsa, and his staff members, denied that they have already set the construction schedule as earlier press reports have suggested.

The agency has conducted comprehensive, though preliminary, studies as to the feasibility and safety of the project, but they have not constituted the required Environmental Impact Assessment study.

Instead, the agency has to wait for a final status report from a hired consultant, and for the government to give it the go- ahead, before assembling experts and researchers from various agencies to conduct the assessment.

Djali said in a hearing yesterday with the House of Representatives Commission X overseeing science and technology that he had never confirmed that the nuclear plant will be constructed in 1998, as reported.

Instead, he was merely recounting to the press that if the plant is to operate in 2003 or 2004, as the government had previously scheduled, then construction will have to start by 1998.

The press reports about Djali's statement over the planned construction by 1998 has created an uproar among anti-nuclear campaigners who believe that the government has been discreetly pushing forward with the plan.

Soekarno Suyudi, the head of the agency's department for the cooperation in science and technology, told The Jakarta Post that the preliminary studies included studies of the topography of the site, volcanology and seismology, meteorology, land and marine use, emergency planning, as well as social, economic and cultural aspects of the project.

The agency maintains that a nuclear power plant is the answer to the increasing demands for energy. "Nuclear is called the final alternative (for energy sources)...because others, including coal-powered or solar-power plants, will not be able to meet the demands," Djali said. (swe)