Nuclear plant 'to supply 10% of Java's electricity'

Nuclear plant 'to supply 10% of Java's electricity'

JAKARTA (JP): A senior official at the National Atomic Energy
Agency (Batan) said yesterday that an estimated 10 percent of
Bali's and Java's electricity supply in 2021 would be generated
by nuclear power.

"This is considerably small compared to the case in South
Korea and Japan where nuclear power contributes up to 35 percent
of the countries' total electricity needs," said the agency's
deputy director general for science and technology, Bakri Arbie.

He told reporters during a break in a seminar that up to 12
nuclear reactors would have to be built to generate the estimated
12,000 megawatts of electricity needed.

But Arbie said the development of nuclear power plants would
have to be done step by step. The government must first decide
whether to go nuclear.

The first nuclear power plant is planned to be built near
Ujung Lemah Abang village on the Muria peninsula in northern
Central Java.

Arbie said the plant's initial feasibility study, which began
in 1991, had cost US$7.5 million so far. It would take about
three years and a lot more money to build the plant, he said.

Arbie said the country would inevitably choose to go nuclear
because the supply of fossil fuels, now used in many power
plants, was falling.

"We can use coal for about 200 more years... but what will
become of the island of Java, if we only use coal to fulfill our
electricity needs," Arbie said, citing the pollution caused by
fossil-fuel power.

Coal is used to generate up to 60 percent of the country's
electricity. Other sources include hydropower and geothermal
power plants.

"I'm afraid that as coal-fired power plants' pollution spreads
all over the island of Java, the island's food program will be
affected with the quality of soil deteriorating yearly," Arbie
said.

"A nuclear power plant, on the other hand, produces a
relatively small amount of waste, which is condensed and can be
used all over again to generate more power, such as in breeder
reactors."

Arbie said the more nuclear power plants there were, the
better it would be for preserving the environment.

"We have to (anticipate) the use of nuclear energy, while we
still have coal as an alternative... or we might lose our
bargaining power if we chose to start only after our coal has
been used up," he added. (aan)