Nuclear power plants

Nuclear power plants

From Forum Keadilan

The massive rejection of nuclear power plants by the European
Community is one of the impacts created by the Chernobyl
disaster. The EC with its new awareness has refused policies on
the development of nuclear power plants in their respective
countries through a referendum as well as government anticipation
of community demands and change of attitude.

It looks as if the pro-nuclear group in Indonesia plays down
this information. See, for example, Dr.Ir. Suyitno's book Nuclear
Power from Bomb to Electricity. He is right when he states that
there was an increase in power energy capacity between 1979 and
1986, but it was limited to eight countries only, among which
were France, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. What are the
trends in other European countries like Austria, Greece, Italy,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark,
Norway and England?

A World Watch Institute report (translated by Yayasan Obor
Indonesia as Challenges of Environmental Problems) reveals
information on the tendency to stop development of nuclear power
plants in the above mentioned European countries.

Suyitno speaks of an increase in nuclear power capacity in the
U.S., France and West Germany. The World Watch report,
conversely, divulges information on the increase in rejection by
the community for additional nuclear power plants in those three
countries, based on Gallup and other opinion polls. In West
Germany the increase was twofold.

The stoppage of nuclear power plant projects as a result of
the community's political pressure (through referendum) and
government's anticipation of a change in the European community's
attitude clearly shows that it is the community that has the most
at stake in determining whether or not to introduce nuclear power
plant technology and not the government or the nuclear experts.
Because it is the community that will bear the risk and the
consequences as a result of the operation of a nuclear power
plant.

Respect the people's sovereignty, that is the essence of the
press statement by GIAT on Jan. 25 and by the Indonesian Legal
Aid Foundation Institute on Jan. 26 in their comments on the
plans for a nuclear power plant in Indonesia.

ANDREAS ISWINARTO

Central Jakarta