[Kabar-indonesia] Australia turning blind eye to Indonesia's nuclear plans: activists

[Joyo at aol.com]

Australia turning blind eye to Indonesia's nuclear plans:
activists

JAKARTA, November 10 (AFP) -- Environmentalists Friday
accused Australia of turning a blind eye to Indonesia's
plans to build nuclear power plants by agreeing to sign a
security pact next week.

Australia and Indonesia are due to sign a new security
treaty on the resort island of Lombok on Monday.

The treaty covers bilateral cooperation in a range of areas,
including defence, counter-terrorism and steps to battle
trans-national crime, but will also cover agreements on
nuclear programs.

Indonesia's nuclear power plans were shelved in 1997 in the
face of mounting public opposition and the discovery and
exploitation of the large Natuna gas field. But the plans
were floated again last year amid growing power shortages.

"Australia is closing their eyes to the whole non-
transparent process and only put forward their uranium
export business aspect," despite efforts to support
democracy in Indonesia, the Indonesian Anti-Nuclear
Community said.

"It is not fair for Australia to support Indonesia's nuclear
program but prohibit the industry in some of their own
states," Dian Abraham, spokesman for the non-governmental
organization told a press briefing.

"There seem to be no plans to consult the people in
developing nuclear plans in Indonesia as written in the 1997
Nuclear Energy Act," he said.

Australia, which holds 40 percent of the world's known
uranium reserves, does not have any nuclear power plants.

However, on Saturday, Prime Minister John Howard said
Australians "would be foolish, from the national interest
point of view, with our vast resources of uranium, to say
that we are not going to consider nuclear power."

"Indonesia is developing a legal framework for the country's
nuclear industry in preparation for an operational nuclear
plant by 2017, as laid out in the 2005 National Energy
Policy," Sukarman Aminjoyo, head of the National Nuclear
Monitoring Body, told AFP.

He said that monitoring body "will open the tender for
construction and operation (for the nuclear power plant) as
soon as we have the law ready."

Indonesia has previously said that it plans to build its
first nuclear power plant, with a capacity of 1,000
megawatts, on densely-populated Java island.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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