Antara 25 May 16;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Learning Education, Mohamad Nasir, said Indonesia must immediately build a nuclear power plant to meet the electricity needs of 60,000 megawatt by 2025.
"A nuclear power plant must be given serious consideration," he argued here on Tuesday.
He pointed out that the trend has shifted from oil and coal to new and renewable energy sources, including nuclear.
He cited the example of France, saying it has been producing and using nuclear power, and also exports it. Germany, although it has decided to stop nuclear power development, still uses energy produced by Frances nuclear power plants.
In the Middle East, he added, the United Arab Emirates is building four nuclear power plants which will be completed at a rate of one plant each year between 2017 and 2020.
Nasir, who spoke to the UAEs Minister of Energy during the Asia-Africa Conferences annual summit in Bandung last year, explained that the country, which is the third biggest producer of oil, would shift from oil to nuclear.
"Nuclear is our future, as oil is for our children and grandchildren," Nasir quoted the UAE minister as saying when asked why his country would opt for a nuclear power plant.
Saudi Arabia, which has suffered a budget deficit after a plunge in the oil price, has declared it will use nuclear power to replace oil by 2020.
In Asia, he observed, Malaysia has also committed to develop a nuclear reactor.
"Our neighbor has seen that if in 2018-2019, Indonesia does not build a nuclear power plant, it will do so in Serawak," he stated.
He posited that if security and safety are cited as reasons for Indonesia not building a nuclear power plant, Malaysia will do it near Indonesia.
"The question is if a disaster happened, who would be affected first? It will be us (Indonesia)," he underscored.
Nasir advocated that nuclear power plant development is very safe and controlled while energy from the plant could reduce cost as it is very cheap.(*)
Indonesia has sufficient number of nuclear experts: Minister
Antara 25 May 16;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Mohamad Nasir, said Indonesia has a sufficient number of nuclear experts to develop the technology.
Indonesia has several universities which have study programs in nuclear science and engineering, the minister pointed out here on Tuesday.
"The Bandung Institute of Technology has engineering and physics program, and the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta has nuclear physics program. So, we have a lot of human resources adept in nuclear engineering," Nasir explained.
However, according to him, the Indonesian human resources in nuclear technology have not been working in the country because there is no nuclear technology development program in Indonesia yet.
As a result, they are working in other countries where the nuclear technology is well developed.
"A lot of our human resources are working in Japan and Russia, and even very likely to work in Malaysia," Nasir observed.
In addition to human resources, the minister added, Indonesia also has abundant nuclear elements in nature, such as uranium, which has not been explored for nuclear power plant.
He stated that the ministry, together with the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan), continues to conduct research and development in the field of nuclear energy to generate power, develop treatments and build a nuclear reactor.
Nasir also wanted Indonesia to immediately utilize its nuclear potentials as an alternative source of energy. He stressed that the nuclear power plant and other nuclear utilizations are safe.(*)
