Proposal To Build Nuclear Power Plant in NTB Needs Study

id Wamen ESDM

Proposal To Build Nuclear Power Plant in NTB Needs Study

Deputy Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Arcandra Tahar. (Foto Awaludin)

"Therefore, it needs deeper study including about the country`s energy requirement and the urgency of developing nuclear energy"
Sumbawa Besar (Antara NTB) - Deputy Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Arcandra Tahar said the proposal to build a nuclear power plant in West Nusa Tenggara needs deeper study.

Arcandra was commenting on suggestion of a lawmaker and leading energy observer Dr Kurtubi to build a nuclear power plant in West Nusa Tenggara to cope with the shortage in the country`s power supply.

However, he said nuclear power is not included in the country`s National Energy Policy (KEN).

"Therefore, it needs deeper study including about the country`s energy requirement and the urgency of developing nuclear energy," he said.

Meanwhile , Sumbawa Regent H M Husni Djibril said he would agree with any policy of the central government in energy including in nuclear energy.

"We would support whatever the government`s decision about the proposal to build a nuclear power plant in West Nusa," Djibril said.

Head of the Regional Mining and Energy Office Muhammad Husni said the National Nuclear Energy Agency (BATAN) had carried out a pre feasibility study on nuclear power plant in West Nusa Tenggara.

Legislators from the province have supported the proposal to build two units of nuclear power plants on the islands of Lombok and Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara, which has long experienced shortage in power supply.

The government has repeatedly said that Indonesia will not resort to nuclear energy to meet its target of 136.7 gigawatt of power capacity by 2025 and 430 gigawatt by 2050.

"We have arrived at the conclusion that this is not the time to build nuclear power capacity. We still have many alternatives and we do not need to raise any controversies," a government official has said.

The government has said it would rely more on renewable energy to meet the country`s energy requirement including geothermal, solar, water and gas energy .

The government said Indonesia will continue to follow developments in the field of nuclear technology and that it would remain a last-resort option for possible use beyond 2050.

While having experimented with nuclear power since the 1950s, Indonesia currently only operates three small-scale reactors: a 100-kilowatt reactor in Yogyakarta, a 250-kW reactor in Bandung and a 30-MW reactor in Serpong, in Banten.

A previous proposal to build larger-scale plants on Central Java`s Muria peninsula and in Bangka-Belitung met with resistance from local residents who feared leaks on the scale of the Fukushima disaster in equally earthquake-prone Japan.

Another place that was under consideration to host a nuclear power plant was Kalimantan, where there are no volcanoes and the relatively large distance from tectonic fault lines means the chance of devastating earthquakes is limited. (*)