Indonesia is hoping going nuclear can help it meet soaring energy demand while taming emissions, but faces serious challenges to its goal of a first small modular reactor by 2032.
Its first experiment with nuclear energy dates to February 1965, when then-Indonesian president Sukarno inaugurated a test reactor.
Sixty years later, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has three research reactors, but no nuclear power plants for electricity.
Photo: AFP
Abundant reserves of polluting coal have so far met the enormous archipelago’s energy needs, but “nuclear will be necessary to constrain the rise of and eventually reduce emissions,” said Philip Andrews-Speed, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has promised to ensure energy security while meeting a pledge to eliminate coal-powered electricity generation within 15 years.
Coal accounts for about two-thirds of electricity generation in Indonesia, which is targeting net zero by 2050.
The government wants 40 gigawatts to 54 gigawatts of the 400 gigawatts it projects would be generated nationwide by 2060 to come from nuclear.
It hopes to kick-start capacity with a reactor on Borneo “by 2030 or 2032,” Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia said.
It will be a small modular reactor, which has a lower capacity than traditional reactors, but is easier to assemble and transport.
The total number of plants planned has not been detailed, but the government has begun scouting locations — a challenge for a nation on the seismically active “Ring of Fire.”
“Currently, 29 potential locations have been identified for the construction of nuclear power plants,” National Energy Council Acting Secretary-General Dadan Kusdiana said.
The sites would also put facilities near energy-hungry mining sites.
While the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan has stalled nuclear progress in some parts of Asia, proponents say nuclear can be done safely in Indonesia.
“North Java, East Sumatra, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan are considered as low-risk zones,” said Andang Widi Harto, a nuclear engineering researcher at Yogyakarta University. “These low seismic risk regions also coincide with low volcanic risk regions.”
Nations from Vietnam to Belgium are also growing or retaining nuclear capacity as they struggle to meet net zero goals to combat climate change.
While Indonesia might not be alone in the nuclear pivot, it has little domestic expertise to draw on.
It would look abroad for help, said Kusdiana, citing “serious interest” from providers including Russia’s Rosatom, China’s CNNC and Candu Canada.
The Indonesian subsidiary of US company ThorCon is already seeking a license for an experimental “molten-salt reactor.”
It wants to use shipyards to build small reactors that would be towed to coastal or offshore locations and “ballasted” to the seabed.
Given the challenges, which also include connectivity issues, waste disposal and potential domestic opposition, some experts warn Indonesia’s nuclear timeline is overambitious.
“I would join others who are skeptical that Indonesia can deploy nuclear power at any significant scale in the next 10 years,” Andrews-Speed said.
Environmentalists would like to see Indonesia focus more on meeting its clean energy targets with renewable sources.
While hydroelectric accounts for more than 7 percent of Indonesia’s electricity generation, solar and wind contribute tiny amounts and could be significantly ramped up, experts say.
The government has not said how much it expects the nuclear ramp-up to cost, but Kusdiana says the money would be there.
“Various potential international investors ... have shown interest,” including Russia, the US, Denmark, South Korea and China, he said.
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