Nuclear plant in Indonesia: Is it necessary?

Nuclear plant in Indonesia: Is it necessary?

By Beni Sukadis

JAKARTA (JP): Two weeks ago we commemorated the worst nuclear
tragedy in history -- the Chernobyl incident. After eight years,
the complete situation there is still a mystery to the
international community.

We should seriously ponder what really happened to the people
of Belarus and the Ukraine. Ukraine, now independent state, where
the nuclear plant is located, was affected by high-level
radiation. But the residents of Belarus suffered even more.

Almost 20 percent of the population of Belarus live in a
contaminated area. According to the report by the observation
center in Kiev, more than 600,000 people have been affected by
radiation.

The accurate data on the number of victims, the condition of
their health, and the condition of water and soil in the
contaminated area are still in question. One thing for sure is
radiation causes cancer, leukemia and genetic defects.

Due to the Soviet bureaucrats' cover-up at the time of the
accident, the people were assured by their government that the
nuclear plant was safe. Now the people are not sure what to
believe, and give more credibility to rumors than government
publications.

The growing distrust among the people of the former Soviet
Union cannot be appeased because the results of clean-up
operations and medical observations have not yet been made
public.

Broke

Indonesia plans to build nuclear plants on the Muria
peninsula. Government officials are very optimistic about
beginning the project in the year 2000. Such determination and
confidence on the part of the government seems unrealistic when
we consider the economic and social position of Indonesia as a
developing nation.

In the financial community, Indonesia is considered the
highest risk country among members of ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asia Nations). If it does not manage the economy
cautiously, it could end up broke.

Indonesia's debt service ratio is 41 percent, a number
economists consider risky, and its debt is US$85 billion (Rp
182.75 trillion). To continue with plans to build the nuclear
plants, Indonesia will need $30 billion (Rp 64.5 trillion),
nearly equal to the entire state budget for 1994.

One potential investor is the Japanese-American company,
NewJec Inc. This company has already completed feasibility
studies on the project, funded by the Japanese Export-Import
Bank.

Since Indonesia's GNP is now only US$600 (Rp 1,290,000), the
country would be wiser to focus on increasing the welfare of the
people rather than on building nuclear plants.

Obviously the government has been planning without the
people's involvement. It insists on initiating the project in
spite of opposition voiced by various groups in the society.

The whole community should be informed about the plans because
the nuclear plants could endanger hundreds of thousands of lives.

It is our obligation to question the government's motives. The
government has conducted a monologue on this issue all these
years. There has never been a dialog with the people.

Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie has said the
nuclear plant is the last option for alternative energy and that
the plan would be halted if people were not in favor of it. Yet
the plans continue.

Indonesia's technology know-how is also a constraint. We can
only consider ourselves users of technology, not its masters. If
the government considers a nuclear plant modern technology, it
will realize this project does not correspond with Indonesia's
technological abilities.

Social transformation

Moreover, to become a high-tech society requires social
transformation, i.e., the widespread integration of values such
as discipline, self-integrity, self-esteem, respect for humanity,
critical thinking and diligence. Only when we achieve these
qualifications will we be ready to become involved in nuclear
technology.

Indonesian officials have repeatedly claimed the nuclear
plants will be much more sophisticated and safer than previous
ones. The reactors will be either the advanced pressurized water
reactors of Mitsubishi or the AP 600 of Westinghouse, USA.

These reactors, according to the No Nukes Asia Forum, have not
yet been operated anywhere in the world. Due to their newness,
testing is still in progress. These facts make the choice
incomprehensible: We don't want to be a test site.

To fulfill its needs for energy in the future, Indonesia
should look into such safe alternatives as geothermal or solar
energy.

It was not an exaggeration when Grigori Medvedev, the Soviet
nuclear physicist at the Chernobyl site, wrote: "It seems hardly
surprising that Chernobyl marked the final, spectacular collapse
of a declining era. As a result of Chernobyl, the nuclear
bureaucrats succeeded in creating a new, more covert, and
insidious version of the violence that perpetrated in the Soviet
Union for more than 70 years. This new violence-radiation was in
turn aggravated by a deliberate policy of downplaying its
dangers, as well as by the secrecy that surrounded the Chernobyl
accident."

The writer is an active member of the Indonesian Committee for
Environment Advocacy Agenda Hijau.