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JAKARTA: Indonesia will pursue its plans to develop nuclear power as part of efforts to find alternative energy sources to address its growing needs, a report said Wednesday.
The chairman of the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency, Natio Lasman, told The Jakarta Post that the government was determined to stick to its original schedule to put its first nuclear power plant to tender in 2008.
Construction would start in 2010 and electricity production would follow in 2017.
“We are currently sounding out the necessary technology from other countries such as Japan, the United States, France and Germany so as to make sure that we get the safest,” Lasman said.
A government committee was also preparing technical decrees to implement newly-passed nuclear power licensing regulations and also to set guidelines for putting the plant out to tender, Lasman said.
Jakarta shelved atomic energy plans in 1997 in the face of mounting public opposition and the discovery and exploitation of the large Natuna gas field.
But the plans were floated again in 2005 amid increasing power shortages and as part of the government policy to develop and diversify energy resources.
Indonesia has said it plans to build its first nuclear power plant on the northern coast of densely-populated Java island.
The province of Gorontalo, on Sulawesi island, is considering developing a floating nuclear power plant using Russian expertise.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has backed Indonesia's plans to build nuclear plants despite opposition from environmentalists.
Indonesia is Southeast Asia's only member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), but its oil output has fallen in recent years to about one million barrels per day amid flagging investment.
