Indonesia Wants Nuke Power, Aware of Terrorist Threat

March 22 2005

"Indonesia is preparing to operate (an) NPP (nuclear power plant) most likely in the next decade," Indonesia's ambassador to the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Thomas Aquino Sriwidjaja, told a conference on the future of nuclear power.
"The introduction of a nuclear power programme by the Indonesian government would not only serve as a solution to the rising demand for electricity, but is also expected to help save and prolong fossil energy for other purposes, as well as a part of global efforts to reduce global warming effects," he said.

Nuclear energy produces almost no greenhouse gases, in contrast to fuel fuels.

Sriwidjaja called on the more developed countries of the world to help Indonesia develop its nuclear energy programme.

He also said Indonesia -- which has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the IAEA's Additional Protocol permitting more intrusive, short-notice inspections -- was aware of the threat posed by terrorists aiming to acquire nuclear materials to use in weapons or to attack atomic facilities.

"Indonesia has taken the necessary measures to minimise any possible threat to its own nuclear facilities (and) has also improved and strengthened the physical protection of the existing nuclear facilities in accordance with international standard requirements," Sriwidjaja said.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Moslem country, has suffered the most bomb attacks of any state in Southeast Asia, including the 2003 bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people, and nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202, mostly foreign tourists.

Taken from Planet Ark. Story also seen in The West Australian.