The facts about nuclear plants

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 08/28/2007 1:45 PM | Opinion

Some 200 or more nuclear power plants currently operate worldwide. This total includes plants in Three Mile Island, the UK, Germany, and Scandinavia that have already come close to Chernobyl-like disasters.

The latest such accident was in Japan, where a complex of seven plants on one site was closed down on the orders of the international nuclear watchdog. The loss of megawatts from the closure is now being replaced by coal imported from Australia.

Below are the facts about Indonesia's nuclear programs.

First, the cost of building one plant is around US$3 billion. Another $3 billion would then have to be spent to ""deconstruct"" a plant after the end of its 25-year lifetime.

Second, any new plant must be built to be able tot withstand earthquakes of between 7.5 and 8.5 on the Richter Scale. The Japanese plant was substantially damaged by a 6.8-magnitude quake.

The recent tremor in Indramayu, West Java, was 7.2 on the Richter Scale.

On top of this, the operating personnel at nuclear plants needs to be carefully chosen and paid three times above what the current pay scale offers. We would also need to be sure they could not be swayed by religious or other influences to carry out terrorist sabotage.

Y. SANTO
Jakarta

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