Nuclear plant still a long way from reality: Sarwono

JAKARTA (JP): Talk of a nuclear power plant in Indonesia is premature, State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said Saturday.

He said the country still had many other energy options, and that there were legal impediments to building a nuclear power plant.

Sarwono was commenting on recent criticism of the government- sponsored nuclear power bill due to be passed by the House of Representatives Wednesday.

"They are misplaced," he said. "Just take the word of State Minister of Research and Technology Habibie that going nuclear will be the government's last option.

"Suppose the nuclear power option is chosen, the construction of the plant will be surrounded by dozens of laws that will make it harder than you think," Sarwono told The Jakarta Post.

He said before starting to set up a nuclear plant, the developers would have to conduct many feasibility studies.

Sarwono said that should the government want a nuclear power plant, the country's environmental, energy, and health laws could not be disregarded "just like that".

"It cannot disregard the outcome of the project's feasibility studies or the country's overall energy policy."

Even if the government decides to go ahead with its plan, he said the developer would have to conduct an environmental impact analysis as required by law.

Sarwono, who is also head of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), said that the Newjec consultancy of Japan has completed a feasibility study on the site for the Muria nuclear project.

"The (consultancy) only studied the site selection for the project, while the study on the regional impacts of the power plant will be conducted after (the government decides) the type of reactors to be used and the planned capacity of the plant," he said.

The site selection study included a geological study of the site, Sarwono said, while the regional impacts study will focus on the technology used, the contingency plan, decommissioning plan, and waste treatment plan.

The whole plan should also take aging installation into consideration, he said.

Sarwono said that projections about the nation's future electricity needs would be central to the debate about whether the country should go nuclear.

If future energy needs can be satisfied by conventional energy resources like oil, hydropower, geothermal and solar energy, going nuclear would not be necessary, he said.

Sarwono said he saw "no immediacy" in the Muria nuclear project and that "it still has a long way to go".

In press reports last year, National Atomic Agency (Batan) officials said that an 800-megawatt nuclear plant was scheduled to start operating in 2003 and would be built at Ujungwatu, at the foot of the dormant Muria volcano in northern Central Java.

They added that Indonesia would need between seven and 12 nuclear reactors to provide the 27,000 megawatts of electricity needed by homes and industries in Java and Bali in the future.

Sarwono said that official interest in the project was "typical of incumbent officials who have personal interests".

"The nuclear energy controversy is premature since the government has not yet decided whether to go ahead with the plan."

He said concerns voiced following the House's recent passage of the nuclear bill "are just reactions to another attractive issue".

"Yes, there are fears in most people of the imminent danger of nuclear power," he acknowledged, suggesting that nuclear power plants should be governed by more than just the law on nuclear power.

The Indonesian Consumers Agency spoke up yesterday and said the passage of the nuclear energy law, scheduled for Feb. 26, would be a "careless and hasty" move.

Agency spokeswoman Zoemrotin K. Soesilo said the law was made with the intention of legitimizing building the nuclear plant and that it should be rejected.

"The law will only speed up construction of the nuclear power plant," she told The Jakarta Post. (08)