INDONESIA'S NUKE REACTOR PROGRAM STILL HANGING IN THE BALANCE

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 25 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's 30 year-old effort to build a nuclear power plant in Central Java to increase the declining electricity supplies for its power consumers has continued to face opposition from local people.

        The government has conducted feasibility studies for about 30 years in order to enable it to build a nuclear reactor in Muria peninsula, Jepara district, Central Java, but environmentalists and local residents still doubt the government's ability to provide safe technology.

        "We doubt the ability of the government to operate and manage a nuclear reactor," coordinator of the Jepara Residents Forum Lilo Sunaryo was quoted as saying by Republika daily on Monday.

        In response to the opposition, the government is monitoring people's reactions and trying to explain to them the results of the research it has conducted for about three decades.

        Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the government's plan to set up a nuclear power plant was not yet final. But he said the government appreciated the people's objections to its plan to build a nuclear power plant in the area.

        He said his office was keeping a close watch on what was being done to implement the plan, including the tackling of the project's environmental aspects which normally had to be done by an analysis and assessment of the project's possible impact on the local environment.

        As long as the proposed nuclear power plant had not yet been built, the plan should be considered as just a "discourse" so that there was no need for people to make a fuss about it too often, Witoelar said.

        The peril of a nuclear incident is the main reason behind the people's opposition. The explosion of Chernobyl's nuclear reactor in Russia in 1986 and the leakage at Mihama's nuclear reactor in Japan in 2004 are still fresh in their minds. In Chernobyl, ten years after the leakage, thousands of people died of exposure to discharged radioactive material.

        Indonesia's experience --through its National Atomic Energy Agency (BATAN) which has three nuclear reactors in Yoyakarta, Bandung and Serpong-- to operate nuclear reactors has not erased people's doubts.

        Lilo said the three reactors were of small scale with temperatures ranging between 100 and 150 degrees Celsius. They were normal types of reactors designed purely for research.

        A nuclear power reactor needs 2.5 million litters of water per minute to be used as a coolant for the temperature in the plant which could reach between 400 Celsius degrees to 600 Celsius degrees.

        If it leaks, the water that gushes out can be as hot as 3,000 degres Celsius which is able to melt iron. This is apart from the radioactive material it would discharge to the environment.

        The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) data show that nuclear waste radiation would last for 24 thousand years.

        Yet, BATAN officials assured that the technology to protect people from possible incidents had been prepared.

        BATAN head Hudi Hastowo was quoted by Republika as saying that the nuclear power reactor that would be built in Japara would use internationally standardized technologies.

        Before starting to build a nuclear power reactor, the agency had carried out 30 years of feasibility studies with consultants from the IAEA in 1976, from Italy in 1984, from BECHTEL (US) in 1984 and from the United State-Japan) in 1994.

        Hastowo said the BATAN reactor in Serpong is not of a small scale as claimed by Lilo. It can generate up to 30 megawatt of electricity. Batan technicians already have the experience to operate a nuclear reactor for 20 years.

        The Muria nuclear reactor is being prepared with high security system. BATAN is considering using the pressurized water reactor system. This technology is able to resist chained fusion reaction, which is normally called China syndrome. The reactor would automatically shut down when the syndrome takes place.

        With the technology, the Indonesian people are advised to support the national nuclear energy development program and can rest assured they will be adequately protected from the radiation hazards associated with nuclear power plants.

        "Technology always poses risks, so does the use of nuclear energy. But this should not lead us to consider nuclear technology negatively as Indonesia will need huge energy sources in the future," Sukarman Aminjoyo, head of the Nuclear Energy Supervisory Agency (Bapeten), said.

        Despite people's trauma over the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs and the Chernobyl nuclear accident, Indonesia had already been making beneficial use of nuclear technology for years, namely in the application of radiation technology in the food and beverage industries, Sukarman noted.

        Amidst the pros and cons on the nuclear power reactor plan, the government is still collecting inputs from the people. "The people's objections to the development of a nuclear power reactor are a valuable input for the government," Minister Witoelar said.

        After all, nuclear reactor ranked lower than bio-fuel, wind power and geothermal on the list of various alternative energy sources Indonesia intended to develop to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel oils, he said. (A014/A/HAJM/B003) 2. 21:15. (T.A014/A/A014/B003) 25-06-2007 21:36:01