RI people advised to support nuclear power development program

Gorontalo, NU Online
The Indonesian people should support the national nuclear energy development program and can rest assured they will be adequately protected from the radiation hazards associated with nuclear power plants, a nuclear energy supervision official said.

"Technology always poses risks, so does the use of nuclear energy. But this should not lead us to consider nuclear technology negatively as Indonesia will need huge energy sources in the future," Sukarman Aminjoyo, head of the Nuclear Energy Supervisory Agency (Bapeten) as quoted by Antara news agency as saying here Thursday.<>

The Indonesian government did not in the least intend to develop nuclear energy to make weapons but only to utilize it for industrial, health and research purposes, he said.

Despite people`s trauma over the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs and the Chernobyl nuclear accident, Indonesia had already been making beneficial use of nuclear technology for years, namely in the application of radiation technology in the food and beverage industries, Sukarman noted.

Sukarman said nuclear energy had already and would become an important alternative source of energy to produce electricity without causing a hazardous greenhouse effect.

Bapeten, he said, was an independent agency which had been tasked by the government to control and reduce the risks in nuclear power utilization.

Bapeten was supporting the function of the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan) in promoting the use of nuclear energy, he added. (dar)