Earthquake-prone Indonesia eyes nuclear power project as 29 possible plant sites revealed

Nuclear power plants will be built across earthquake-prone Indonesia, under a proposal put forward by the country’s energy council – a plan that environmentalists call “dangerous”.

While the Indonesian National Energy Council’s proposal is still being formulated, the authority has suggested 29 possible locations for nuclear power plants.

The sites extend from North Sumatra, southeast of the archipelago, to West Papua.

Agus Puji Prasetyono, one of the council members, told ABC Indonesia that nuclear power was “inevitable” because the government needed to ensure reliable energy sources and reduce carbon emissions.

“Many Asian G20 countries, such as Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, have built nuclear power plants,” Prasetyono said.

“How come we’re the only (country) that doesn’t have one?”

Indonesia has long considered nuclear power, but in recent months the government has engaged in talks with foreign governments and companies to acquire the technology and infrastructure needed for the plants, according to local media.

It comes as debate intensifies in Australia over the viability of nuclear power after the Coalition published the costs of its projects.

Although the price of Indonesia’s nuclear project has not yet been determined, it would need support from foreign investors because the government cannot afford to build nuclear power plants, Prasetyono said.

The eight-member energy council – which is part of the Energy Ministry and is employed by the Indonesian government to formulate the country’s energy plan – has met with several interested companies, including from China and Russia, he added.

Nuclear power plants are “risky”

The new details about the location of factory sites have renewed safety concerns among environmental advocates, in part because Indonesia is prone to natural disasters.

The archipelago lies primarily along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates frequently collide and cause earthquakes and other disasters.

Twenty years ago, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province and triggered the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed some 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.

Hendrikus Adam of the environmental non-profit WALHI said authorities must learn lessons from past nuclear disasters, including those caused by earthquakes and tsunamis like the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan. .

“We believe that nuclear power plants are risky, dangerous and harmful to humans and the environment,” Mr Adam said.

“The development of a nuclear power plant itself is also very expensive and dangerous.”

Mr Prasetyono said viability studies would be carried out on the proposed sites to ensure the risks of natural disasters were minimised.

“The fault line should be more than 5 kilometers (from the power plant) to minimize significant impact on construction,” he said.

If the proposals come to fruition, factories would use newer technology with better safety systems, he added.

Nuclear power for the nickel industry

Nuclear power plants operate in 32 countries around the world, according to the World Nuclear Association.

At the G20 summit in November, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto pledged to decommission all coal and fossil fuel power plants over the next 15 years in order to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

This commitment means that nuclear power has now become inevitable for Indonesia, Prasetyono said, because huge Indonesian industries like nickel depend on stable energy sources.

Indonesia is the world’s largest nickel refiner thanks to billions of dollars in mostly Chinese investment, and the industry uses coal-fired power plants.

“Solar, wind or hydro plants, they are all intermittent energy sources,” he said.

“Intermittent energy is fluctuating and cannot power smelters…it must be nuclear.”

However, Grita Anindarini, senior strategist at the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, disputed this assessment.

Ms Anindarini said there were still many “underutilized” renewable energy sources.

Last month, Deputy Minister of National Development Planning Vivi Yulaswati said Indonesia was in talks with the United States and Russia on acquiring technologies to develop nuclear power plants.

Separately, Indonesia’s state-owned power company PLN has reportedly signed deals with companies in the United States and Japan to build small modular reactors, Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto said earlier this month.

“This is something that must be taken into account to strengthen support for our energy industry,” Hartarto said in a report by local media kompas.com.

Details of the deals are scarce and PLN declined to comment for this story.

Small modular reactors have a capacity of up to 300 megawatts per unit, about a third of traditional nuclear power plants.

Currently, none are in commercial operation in any Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country.

In Australia, the town of Collie in Washington state is in the spotlight, with the federal opposition keen to transform the site of one of Collie’s coal-fired power stations into a small modular reactor if elected.

The WA government is moving to move the city away from coal by 2030.

The Indonesian National Agency for Nuclear Energy (BATAN) operates three research-only nuclear reactors in Bandung, Yogyakarta and Serpong.

With Reuters