Making it fun: Environmental group Greenpeace repackage the serious issue of nuclear power station into a reader friendly comic.

Zzzaappp! A dreadful reaction occurs. For the second time, machines in front of professor Bayu produce a bright, glaring light. A moment later, the machines vanish.

In the same place but at a different time, Surya receives a strange signal. Zzaaap!! Two beams of light appear, marking the arrival of two time machines. Smoke belches out as the doors open. “Welcome to the year 2009,” Surya greets Hidam and Jaumai.

Hidam and Jaumai’s trip back in time is the beginning of the two teenagers’ adventure in a comic book entitled Nuclear Meltdown, A Message of Darkness.

The story goes that Hidam and Jumai live in an era when Indonesia is totally devastated by the explosion of a nuclear reactor. Their return to 2009 to rescue this country from nuclear energy fueled destruction.

“You don’t go just for sightseeing on earth, but also for the mission of preserving its beauty,” said professor Bayu, the other character.

The comic is one form of protest initiated by two environmental NGOs, Greenpeace and Muria Institute, against the government’s plan to build a nuclear power plant.

Through the comic, the two groups, which have been against nuclear power from the very beginning, want to increase public awareness of the risk of its danger to humanity, the environment and the economy. A nuclear power reactor is slated to be built in Central Java.

Why a comic strip? Tessa de Ryck, a campaigner for nuclear affairs in the Southeast Asian region, said comics are a good way of popularizing anti-nuclear issues among the younger generation. By reading this comic book, young people will hopefully realize the importance of rejecting nuclear power in the country, she says.

“Indonesian youngsters are smarter than nuclear industrialists may think,” said Tessa, adding that the youth will determine in the future whether the power plant schemes are to be realized or not.

Many Indonesian’s are devastated by the National Agency for Atomic Energy Utilization’s (Banaspati) plan to build nuclear reactors. Indonesia has the choices of developing and harvesting other more environment-friendly sources of energy including geothermal, wind, solar and micro-hydro.

Greenpeace believes it is crucial to continuously wage anti-nuclear campaigns in the face of the misleading campaigns of pro-nuclear groups, which have always said nuclear power is safe.

“Misleading information is given about the plan to construct a nuclear power plant on Mount Muria, Central Java,” writes Nuruddin Amin, a founder of the Muria Institute, says in the book’s introduction.

Marto, who wrote the comic, has conveyed the serious issue in a simple form, making it ac accessible for youngsters.

The 22-page comic can be downloaded for free at www.greenpeace.or.id/komiknuklir.

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