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Batan finds source of Serpong's radioactive waste, dumper still unknown
According to Government Regulation No. 61/2013, such radioactive waste should be delivered for processing to a disposal facility owned by the National Nuclear Agency (Batan) in Serpong, South Tangerang. Similar measures were undertaken by other countries since the procedure was directly regulated by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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A team made up of members of the National Police Mobile Brigade bomb squad and the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) detects radiation at the Batan Indah housing complex in Serpong, South Tangerang, Banten, on Feb. 15. (Antara/Muhammad Iqbal)
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ctivists and experts are demanding to know how radioactive materials ended up in the Batan Indah housing complex in South Tangerang, Banten, saying that such dangerous substances should not be discarded in a residential neighborhood.
“The radioactive waste in a populated area is quite unusual. It makes us wonder: Who threw the waste away in the [housing] complex?” Dwi Sawung, the head campaigner for energy and urban issues at the Indonesian Forum of the Environment (Walhi), told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Meanwhile, Heru Umbara, spokesperson for the National Nuclear Agency (Batan), said his agency had already determined the source of the waste, but a further investigation was still needed to find those responsible for leaving it in the residential area.
“We have identified the source of the waste, but we still don’t know who dumped the waste at the site,” Heru said, without revealing any more details.
The incident has been under a media spotlight for the past week after the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) detected a high level of radiation at a vacant lot next to a volleyball court in the housing complex during a regular detection survey on Jan. 30 and 31. Suspicions emerged that the radiation came from a leak at a small nuclear reactor located about 5 kilometers from the housing complex.
A week later, the agency found material believed to be the source of the radiation in the lot and confirmed that the dangerous substance was the highly radioactive Caesium-137, which is commonly used for industrial purposes. The discovery generated allegations that the radioactive materials came from industrial sources and not the reactor.
