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View all search resultsNuclear power: Secure it with proven technology
Until thorium shows it can produce reliable electricity at scale, Indonesia’s sovereignty requires us to treat it as research, not as our energy backbone.
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The Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (back), is seen from Ukedo fishing port in Namie, Fukushima prefecture on Aug. 24, 2023. Japan began releasing wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24 despite angry opposition from China and local fishermen. (AFP/Philip Fong)
I
ndonesia today faces a hard reality. Our demand for energy grows each year, yet we still rely on fossil fuels that compromise both our climate commitments and our sovereignty.
Among other new and renewable energy sources, nuclear power is becoming more and more crucial to the world's energy transition because it can supply dependable, low-carbon electricity.
However, nuclear power is more than technology. Reactors may be advanced, but people run them, and without discipline and integrity, no design is safe. Culture decides safety as much as machines do. A design may cut accident risks to one in 10 million, yet corruption or shortcuts erase that margin. That is why Indonesia cannot afford the added risk of gambling on unproven technologies.
Which technology to choose? The answer must be guided by sovereignty, which means refusing to be a test-bed for unfinished experiments.
Thorium has been called “promising” since the 1950s, yet no nation has built a proven, sovereign reactor from it. India’s KAMINI, at only 30 kWth, remains a non-commercial research reactor fueled by U-233 bred from thorium. Kakrapar-1, sometimes cited as thorium-fueled, was in fact a 220 MWe PHWR running mainly on uranium, with only limited thorium bundle trials. Elsewhere, China’s 2 MW Wuwei test reactor reached criticality but still delivers no power to its people.
Until thorium shows it can produce reliable electricity at scale, Indonesia’s sovereignty requires us to treat it as research, not as our energy backbone.
Thorium’s technical hurdles remain severe. Fabrication requires higher temperatures, its chemical inertness complicates processing and short-term radioactivity demands costly shielding. Decades of research have not resolved these problems in a way that delivers commercial power.
