[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia Delegation To Visit Iran To Study Nuclear Program [+ST]

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: ST: Alternative Energy: Beware hidden costs 
[includes Indonesia, and Pursuing the nuclear option]

Indonesia Delegation To Visit Iran To Study Nuclear Program

Jakarta, 2 August (AKI) - Delegates of Indonesia's
parliamentary defence commission are scheduled to
travel to Iran to study the country's nuclear
programme, MP Boy M.W. Saul told the Jakarta-based
news site Tempo Interactive. The five delegates, the
deputy said, "will see how far advanced nuclear
development is, whether it's used for peaceful
purposes." No date has been set for the trip yet,
though reports say it is imminent. 

Indonesia has always defended Iran's right to a
nuclear programme, provided it is for civilian
purposes, as Iran claims it is. The international
community fears instead Tehran is trying to build
atomic weapons and the UN Security Council voted on
Monday a legally binding resolution threatening Iran
with sanctions if it fails to comply with its demand
to halt uraniumn enrichment and reprocessing
activities by 31 August.

Jakarta has announced it means to pursue a civilian
nuclear programme to cover its electricity needs which
grow on average by 10 percent a year.

Minister of energy and mineral resources, Purnomo
Yusgiantoro has said that Indonesia plans to build its
first nuclear power plant by 2015. The plant should be
built in the peninsula of Muria, on the north-eastern
coast of Semarang in central Java. The national agency
of atomic energy Batan said the site was chosen as it
is considered fairly safe in a country well known for
its seismic activity and volcanoes. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Straits Times [Singapore]
July 22, 2006

Alternative energy: Beware hidden costs

By Chua Hearn Yuit and Jardine Wall, For The Straits
Times

photo: WORTH BEARING IN MIND: A worker checking drums
of nuclear waste at the Yonggwang nuclear plant. South
Korea took 19 years to dispose of its low-level waste
property. -- AP

ASIAN governments are caught between an
ever-increasing demand for cheap energy to fuel
development and an unabating rise in global oil
prices. A few South-east Asian governments are feeling
the financial pain of costly fuel subsidies and are
looking else- where for energy sources. 

The hunt for alternative energy sources has led Asian
nations to explore nuclear energy and biofuel
technology, among others. Their widespread use is not
yet clearly viable, nor has the cost of implementation
been easy to stomach for government budget planners. 

Media and investor hype, lauding the merits of
adopting renewables along with pro-active government
claims of 'going nuclear' and embracing biofuels, may
obscure important non-economic issues. 

Pursuing the nuclear option 

ASIAN countries going nuclear will help fulfil rapidly
increasing domestic power demands without the
greenhouse or acid rain effects from burning fossil
fuels. Japan has the third-largest nuclear generation
capacity in the world, with 47.6 gigawatts as of June
this year, while South Korea occupies 5th position
with 16.8 gigawatts (Nuclear Energy Institute). Both
countries aim to expand their nuclear capacity by 60
per cent, by 2035 and 2050,
respectively. 

In South-east Asia, Indonesia is capturing the
headlines with a US$8 billion (S$12.7 billion) project
to build four 1,000MW nuclear power plants as part of
a 4,000MW overall capacity plan by 2016. Vietnam
recently announced plans to install two nuclear
reactors to sustain the country's power needs by 2020.
A July 12 Bernama report also noted Malaysia's
interest in using nuclear technology to generate
electricity. 

Several concerns stand in the way of a successful
nuclear option strategy. Lessons should be drawn from
the veteran players in the region. 

Japan's experience had not been picture-perfect, with
the 1999 Tokaimura and 2004 Kansai incidents that saw
problems with maintenance and falsification of safety
records. 

The greatest obstacle lies with nuclear waste (spent
fuel) disposal. South Korea took 19 years to dispose
of its low-level waste properly, and Taiwan is
experiencing similar problems. 

Indonesia faces strong resistance from the public and
non-governmental organisations such as the Walhi
environmental group. The country's inadequate
infrastructural and institutional framework, as well
as poor protection mechanisms against natural
disasters, render facility location a major problem. 

Elsewhere, Myanmar's participation adds a sinister
twist to the otherwise benign nuclear energy plot that
Asean has enacted thus far. A July 5 Australian media
story reported Myanmar's recent bid to procure nuclear
weapons from North Korea, following an unrealised deal
with Russia in 2002. 

Issues such as safety and disposal of nuclear waste
need to be thought through and debated to raise
awareness. Governments should also give a more
complete calculation of the cost and benefit of
nuclear energy. 

The biofuel alternative 

BIOFUEL is uniquely appealing to Asian governments
interested in decreasing fossil fuel dependence in the
transport sector. Production would engage existing
national agricultural industries, namely sugar,
coconut, cassava, castor kernel and oil palm
plantations. 

Giving a boost to the large number of farmers in the
region is good politics for South-east Asian leaders,
so policymakers are devoting much airtime and funding
to the biofuel cause. 

Biofuel technology has taken two paths of development:

*  bio-ethanol gasoline, or 'gasohol', from food crops
like sugar and cassava; 

*  biodiesel, from oil-producing crops like coconut,
castor kernel and oil palm. 

Thailand, India, China and Japan have all launched
national gasohol policies, and work is under way in
the Philippines and Indonesia to also 'go gasohol'.
Thailand has the longest-standing programme in
gasohol, started in 1985, and now has more than 4,000
stations serving the alternative fuel. The blending of
10 per cent ethanol into gasoline will be mandated by
year-end, with an import ban on MTBE, the petrol-based
fuel additive that ethanol replaces. 

Japan's Environment Ministry is following suit,
recently proposing a plan to require the car fleet to
use 10 per cent ethanol fuel by 2030, which will help
the nation meet its strict Kyoto Protocol targets. In
China, the government is making 10 per cent ethanol blends
mandatory in five provinces, which accounts for 16 per
cent of the nation's passenger cars. This is part of a
new national energy policy unveiled in January,
requiring China to boost renewable consumption to a
fifth of total consumption by 2020. 

Biodiesel initiatives are under way in the Philippines
('cocodiesel'), Thailand, Malaysia and, in very early
stages, Singapore. 

Most recently, and with much fanfare, the Indonesian
government announced its new focus of biofuel. The
Minister of Energy unveiled on July 13 the country's
intention to raise and invest 200 trillion rupiah
(S$35 billion) over the next five years for biofuel
production and distribution. 

Indonesia is particularly focused on biodiesel
production from palm oil. According to an earlier
announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture,
three-quarters of the biofuel production funds for the
next five years, or 51 trillion rupiah, will be used
for palm oil production. 

Indonesia is keen to replicate the success of the
Malaysian government's Envo Diesel programme which,
despite hiccups, is expected to produce up to 500,000
tonnes of biodiesel made up of 5 per cent palm-oil-
derived diesel and 95 per cent petroleum-derived
diesel. 

Malaysia announced guidelines to its biodiesel policy
last August, and the buzz is already attracting
interest from foreign businesses and governments
seeking to set up plants for large-scale production. 

The social and environmental benefits of a biofuel
industry in South-east Asia as a whole require
thorough scrutiny. Though a few projects would make
use of existing agricultural land or abandoned
farmlands, there is also a possibility that virgin
forest would be cleared for new plantations. 

More carbon emissions? 

THIS is bad news, and not only for the region's
already threatened forests. It also nullifies any
emission reductions provided by the use of biofuels.
In a comparison of cumulative carbon dioxide emitted
in the life cycle of a fuel - from production to
distribution to final use in a car engine - biofuel
from cleared forest land actually outstrips petrol
fuel in its carbon dioxide intensity because of the
massive loss of carbon dioxide absorption capacity
when virgin forest is cut down. 

The second issue with land use is the possibility that
fuel source plantations will compete with food crops.
With malnutrition and under-nutrition being major
concerns in the region, it seems morally ambiguous to
choose biofuel at the expense of the basic food needs
of South-east Asian people. 

Use of jatropha, which is normally processed to create
castor oil, for biodiesel seems like a less
controversial and more far-sighted option for
South-east Asia, as the plant grows in poor soil and
will thus not compete directly with food crops.
Jatropha plantations for biodiesel are under way in
four regions of Indonesia, and have had success in
parts of India. 

While the general impulse of governments in response
to rising oil prices and in search for energy security
has been to seek 'alternative' energy sources or
'solutions', equal emphasis should also be placed on
conservation efforts. These can be achieved through
capacity building and effective regulatory measures to
discipline energy consumption behaviour - without
which, any national energy security strategy will be
incomplete. 

The writers are researchers at the Singapore Institute
of International Affairs. 

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------