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