The government continued campaigning about the benefits and security of a nuclear power plant among the population of Bangka island in the Sumatran province of Bangka-Belitung.
Research and technology minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said, after giving a lecture at the Bandung Institute of Technology here on Saturday, that Bangka is considered the safest place for the development of a nuclear power plant.
“Its location is safe. The island also has uranium, which is the raw material for the plant,” he said, adding “we are now focusing on finding the right location.”
The minister said Bangka is also strategic as a location for electricity distribution because it is close to Sumatra, which has many industries, and Java, which is densely populated.
Bangka is also more advantageous compared to Kalimantan, which is safe from earthquakes but too far for the distribution of electricity to industries and residential homes, he said.
According to a survey, 55 percent of the population on Bangka island had initially supported the plan, but “the number is now down below 50 percent following the incident in Fukushima, Japan,” he said.
Gusti said, ideally, support must be above 55 percent and therefore the government would continue to campaign on the importance of the plant to assure energy supply in the country among the people in Bangka.
The government has also explained about the importance of the plant to students, from elementary to high school students. “People who are still afraid must be convinced through a campaign,” he said.
In the long term, the minister said nuclear energy is the least expensive option and could allow Indonesia’s energy supplies to become more resilient.
“It is predicted that our oil reserves will dry up in 12 to 14 years’ time, and our natural gas in the next 40 years. Coal is still abundant, but if it is burned it would increase the greenhouse gases,” he said.
Renewable energy from bio-fuels, meanwhile, is less competitive to be marketed as a mass fuel because its price is still higher than fossil fuels.
“So, nuclear power is actually a long-term and cheap alternative for mass-producing energy,” he said.
Gusti said he believed Indonesia has the capability to build a nuclear power plant because it has experts who have often been asked by the International Atomic Energy Agency to become researchers in that agency.
If all goes well, the minister said the Indonesian government would start constructing a nuclear power plant in Bangka in 2016.
