Friday, July 31, 2009

Fear Curbs Indonesia’s Nuclear Ambitions










Nuclear power has been on and off the national agenda since the early days of Suharto but the State Minister of Research and Technology still sees it as a safe, clean form of energy and he has not given up on the idea of it becoming a reality.

The lack of understanding about nuclear power was behind protests by thousands of people in 2007 — led by the former president Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur — when his ministry wanted to promote the idea of building a nuclear plant in Jepara, Central Java.

Most Indonesians were overly negative about nuclear power because of a fear of dangerous radiation leaks, and the worry of building plants in such an earthquake and volcano prone country.

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