Should Indonesia Abandon its Nuclear Plans? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Indonesia’s plan to build its first nuclear plant in the next decade has been shelved indefinitely because of the nuclear disaster in Japan. Indonesia has large uranium deposits but like Japan, it’s located inside the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’ where the threat of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is high. Bloggers are joining the debate on whether Indonesia should pursue its nuclear dreams.
Erwin Wirawan is neutral on the issue
I am on neutral ground. Many accounts of the downside of nuclear power plant are exacerbated and in fact, the renewable energy sources are still pipe dreams for mass production.
First, nuclear power plant is not the most dangerous compared to other more common energy source such as coal. The nuclear power plant disasters are rare. The worst nuclear disaster was in Chernobyl claimed “only” 28 lives. Do you know that in China, 2,442 workers were killed in 1,401 coal mining incidents in 2010, while in the United States, 18 coal miners died in 2009?
Finally, Indonesia does need variety of energy to speed up the economic development while reducing the energy cost. And each energy source has its own advantages and disadvantages. Nuclear energy is neither the best nor the worst. Accordingly, the government must put this option on the table along with others
Colson hopes that Indonesian authorities would seriously consider the situation in Fukushima, Japan before building a nuclear plant
And just like the Japanese plants, nuclear power plants in Indonesia are by definition on or near the “Ring of Fire”- that is they will always be in a hazardous situation. If, or rather when, the unthinkable will happen it might cause an unprecedented catastrophe.
So let’s hope the real crucial people in charge will wisely reconsider their plans, taking into account what is happening in Fukushima.
Calvin supports the idea of using nuclear energy but insists that the plant must be located in a safe area
i have mixed position regarding nuclear power. I do support nuclear to be used as energy source but i think it must be placed outside ring of fire.
Tikno suggests other sources of energy like coal or geothermal
Indonesia having many natural resources that can be converted into electricity, such as: water, coal, geothermal. It’s time for human kind researching in technology (other than nuclear) to generate electricity.
Multibrand emphasizes the need to include nuclear energy as an option to meet the future energy requirement of Indonesia
Considering that Indonesia will need lots of electric power for development of the country, and the source of electricity, i.e. coal, gas, petroleum, geothermal, is limited, I think we should keep an open mind on the possibility of building a nuclear power reactors that can provide much bigger electricity.
But in this case we must make sure that reactor would be located in a place that would not be affected by earthquake and/or other natural disasters, operated and maintained by people who are highly skilled and disciplined
Luke believes that despite the crisis in Japan, nuclear energy should not be dismissed
I think Nuclear power is the safest form of power generation which like flying is the safest form of travel, but when it goes really wrong it will go really wrong. I also think that we can't dismiss nuclear power because of what has happened happened in Japan. We learnt from Chernobyl and I believe it is still the way to go.
Twitter user @Ihwoon identifies ‘safe’ areas in Indonesia which are outside the ‘ring of fire.’
Nuclear energy is the most cheap energy. It is the key to make better Indonesia, to boost country development program by providing cheap and clean energy. Facing the world situation now when coal and oil prices are rising and our oil and coal deposits are decreasing, the nuclear energy is an alternative solution. We can save 30 million tons of coal per year and 70 million barrels of oil per year. We could make our country become a clean country by reducing 20 percent pollution emission. I understand we are located in “ring of fire” but we also have areas that are not located in that area: “Bangka and Kalimantan are the safe zones if we want to build it. There is no recorded landslide and earthquake in those areas in the last 100 years.