Study of nuclear reactor project nearly complete

JAKARTA (JP): The government has commissioned two foreign consultancy companies to give a one-last overview of the various feasibility studies conducted for Indonesia's first commercial nuclear power plant.

Djali Ahimsa, director general of the National Atomic Agency, said yesterday that earlier studies commissioned by the government found the proposed project for the 7,000 megawatt plant, to be built at Ujung Lemahabang in the Muria Peninsula, Central Java, both commercially and technologically feasible.

Speaking during a hearing with a largely skeptical Commission X of the House of Representatives, Djali said the government has assigned Sargent & Lundy of the United States and Newjec of Japan to review the results and give their independent opinions.

The studies should be completed next year and the project would then be presented for a public debate before the government makes its decision on whether Indonesia would go nuclear, he added.

The government has commissioned the study to build Indonesia's first nuclear power plant in spite of objections from various quarters, saying that the country has to keep all options open regarding its sources of energy.

Officials have pointed out that Indonesia will likely become a net importer of oil, now a major source of foreign exchange earning, at the turn of the century through a combination of falling oil reserves and rapidly increasing domestic demands.

Most members of the House's commission were not convinced yesterday about Indonesia's capability in handling a nuclear power plant and dealing with the potential hazards of nuclear technology.

"We are still being haunted by the 1987 Chernobyl disaster, the leakage at the Japanese nuclear plant in 1991, and the explosion at the Serpong reactor last year," M.P. Pasaribu of the ruling Golkar faction said.

The Serpong reactor is one of two small nuclear facilities established in Indonesia chiefly for research purposes.

Pasaribu also noted that many huge projects undertaken by the government turned out to be defective or of poor quality and said he feared that the nuclear project could meet the same fate.

"Speaking in the name of the legislative body and of myself, I ask the government to revise its plan for the project."

Laksmiari Priyonggo of the Indonesian Democratic party faction stressed that the government must ensure the political support of the people before deciding to build the project. "The project may be technically and economically feasible but it still needs to have the political support of the people," she said.

Djali pleaded for the House to look at the issue from its overall perspective, rather than looking at the piece-by-piece information that it is receiving.

The Chernobyl accident was an exceptional case, while the accident in Japan did not cause any human casualties, he pointed out. The explosion in Serpong occurred at a construction site and had nothing to do with the nuclear facility, he added.

He also said that Indonesia has already prepared the necessary manpower to handle nuclear power plants.

If the project is approved next year, construction could start in 1998 and the nuclear power plant could become operational by 2004, ready to supply electricity to Java and Bali, he said. (rms)