RI-France Nuclear Cooperation: Reactor Research to Energy Supply

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - The energy sector has now become the main focus governing cooperation of one country with another. For Indonesia, concentration on such issue is deemed important especially with its supply of oil running particularly low. There are many alternatives to oil and one of them includes nuclear energy.

Indonesia strong reliance to oil, gas and coal to supply its electricity needs makes the imminent scarcity of those energy sources a big deal. In dealing with such worrying imminent scarcity, the Head of Nuclear Entrenchment Technology from the National Nuclear Agency (BATAN), Agus Sumaryanto said that the overall population ought to consider and accept the high likeliness of nuclear energy to play a significant role as the substitute to the soon scarce supply of energy sources from oil, has and coal.

Agus claims that nuclear energy is the most appropriate substitute to satisfy the nation’s electricity needs which evidently grows overtime.

Surely, the construction of nuclear power plant, its usage, sustenance as well as its maintenance have to be managed properly and sometimes it entails the help of other nations that have excelled in such experience of establishing nuclear sites to generate power plants that would be beneficial for electricity supply.

French Ambassador to Indonesia Madame Corinne Breuzé shared to Liputan6.com during a special interview held a while ago that the relationship between Indonesia and France is generally strong in the field of energy. This can be seen through the presence of French-owned gas station ‘Total’ in many parts of Jakarta. It is considered as one of the biggest gas and oil companies in Indonesia.

“It has been operating since almost fifty years now in Indonesia,” she explained.

As for nuclear energy, Madame Corinne Breuzé commented that Indonesia ought to start putting it as a potential alternative to depleting supply of oil.

“It is important for Indonesia to start to think about nuclear as an energy for the future,” she further explained.

“As you know in France, more than 70% of our energy comes from nuclear. So, we have a lot to share with Indonesia,” she added.

France is then, can be considered as a potential strategic partner to such development as it has been relying to nuclear energy for decades and thus such assistance is highly necessitated.

Madame Ambassador also went to share about how originally the cooperation that predates back to the era of 1980s and 1990s was mainly about giving technical assistance to train Indonesians in the field of nuclear.

“It was for research reactor at first, not energy,” she continued.

Now however, she reminded the importance of making good use of nuclear energy as a substitute to gradually diminishing oil.

Nuclear as a source of energy is also said to be environmentally friendly, a blatant clarification to the common stereotype judging the energy source as the fatal instrument used solely for warfare and destruction at a massive scale.

To make further assurance to the Indonesian population in regards to its positive and peaceful use, BATAN is planning to build Experimental Power Reactor (RDE) which is designed to facilitate the general population with the information needed to know regarding the benefits of using nuclear energy in fulfilling the archipelago’s electricity needs without having to contribute into the worsening of global warming.