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ndonesia is not ready to build nuclear power plants due to human resources issues and public opposition, Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said.

Gusti’s statement comes as the National Atomic Energy Agency (Batan) insists on going ahead with its nuclear plant program despite mounting opposition.

Minister Gusti argued that nuclear power plants should be the last resort since the country still had several energy options.

“There’s no need to hurry to build a nuclear power plant except if we start running out of energy resources,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Indonesia could explore cleaner energy options such as geothermal, wind or water to power electricity plants.

Aside from problems with the supply of raw materials, the government needs to ensure the public about the security aspect following Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis, he went on.

“It is not easy to ensure a public that is skeptical about nuclear reactors in Indonesia,” he said.

Under the 2009 Environmental Law, Gusti’s office is responsible for issuing environmental impact analysis documents for strategic businesses, including for nuclear power plants.

The nuclear crisis in Japan, triggered by the 8.9 Richter scale earthquake, has forced the Japanese government to evacuate an area up to 30 kilometers from the plant site.

Like Japan, Indonesia is located within the ring of fire that is prone to earthquakes.

Batan head Hudi Hastowi has insisted that the office would go ahead with the plan since it had been mandated by law.

He said his office would implement Law No. 17/2007 on the long-term development plan stipulating, among other things, energy issues and the 2006 presidential regulation on the national energy policy.

The presidential regulation stipulates that 2 percent of the country’s total demand for energy should be met by nuclear power plants from 2025.

“We have already missed the first deadline to start operating nuclear plants in 2017. We don’t want another setback,” Hudi told the Post.

To supply 2 percent of the electricity demand, Indonesia would need to construct four nuclear power plants with a capacity of 4,000 MW.

It takes about 10 years to build a nuclear power plant.

“Batan will start mapping feasible locations for a nuclear power plant this year,” he said.

Hadi said the office had not received any proposal from developers interested in building nuclear power plants.

According to Hadi, the nuclear power plant debate should not been swayed by the issues with nuclear reactors in Japan.

“Batan works based on the law and it is our responsibility to uphold the law, but activists only look at the nuclear incident in Japan,” he said.

Activists have long complained about the government’s plan to build a power plant, urging authorities to utilize other energy resources instead.

The executive director of Indonesia Green Institute, Chalid Muhammad, said that with the nuclear radiation alert in Japan, the Indonesian government should cancel the plan to build a nuclear power plant.

“We could not imagine if a nuclear incident such as in Japan, a country with very good technology and preparedness in facing disaster, were to happen in Indonesia,” he said.

Chalid also questioned why Batan insisted on building a nuclear power plant.

“I suspect key officials at Batan have personal interests to make them to go ahead with the plant despite the lesson from Japan,” he said.

Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) member Andrie Wijaya warned that corruption in the government could put the development of a nuclear power plant at risk.

He said the government was not ready in terms of good governance.