Permsalahan PLTN di Indonesia

THE PROBLEM OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IN INDONESIA
AND RECOMMENDATION TO HANDLE IT

By:
Baskoro Adi Prayitno

The concept of PLTN (Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Nuklir) in Indonesia has conversed since 1964. In 1964, the government was announcing the blue print of research and development of nuclear energy. From 1964 until today, the nuclear energy in Indonesia is becoming a controversial issue that is about pro and contra about the use of nuclear energy in Indonesia.

The crucial problem has been solved in developing of nuclear energy (PLTN) in Indonesia, which creates the strategy to win of public perception. Recently, the public perception has negative perception about use of the nuclear energy. The negative perception is not only from Indonesian community but also from international community. Several main reasons are commonly given for this. The first about the security issue of the nuclear reactor, it is very difficult to assure a public about the secure of the nuclear reactor although the government has used the newest generation of the nuclear reactor. I think, this problem caused the impact of perception, we are still remembering about Chernobyl cases (damage of the reactor nuclear case in Russia), Nagasaki and Hiroshima cases (nuclear bomb case). Many peoples were dead in these cases. This traumatic experience has correlated with the negative perception of publics about the danger of the nuclear energy.

The public perception about the nuclear energy (in this case PLTN depends with the performance of the government in handling another problem. For example, we still remember about Bojong cases (domestic waste cases), on the public perception, the government fail to solve this problem, so how about the nuclear waste? The nuclear waste cases are more complex problem rather than domestic waste cases.

Secondly, about the environmental issue, the nuclear reactor can cause many nuclear waste (we still remember the physics law; no machine which efficient of 100 percent). The nuclear waste (radioactive) is very dangerous for environment and living thing. Many people have been lack of the information about the impact of the nuclear energy toward social and ecological impact. The problem is ‘how the government and the pro-nuclear public could be give positive information to them’. The positive information about something, theoretically could change of negative perception, in this case, the positive information about nuclear energy could change of negative perception about nuclear energy. Actually it depends of who is the winner in the battle to grab public perception, the public who agrees with nuclear energy or the public who disagree with nuclear energy.

In conclusion, it is clear, if the government and pro-nuclear public could develop the nuclear power in Indonesia, they are must be the winner in the battle to grab of public perception.