STATE MINISTER FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGYREPUBLIC OF INDONESIA“Indonesian Policy on the Development and Utilization ofNuclear Energy”
byM. Hatta Rajasa
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is indeed a great pleasure and an honor for me to be
invited on behalf of my country, Indonesia, to participate again
in this distinguished Forum for Nuclear Co-operation in Asia.
Please kindly allow me, first of all, to express my deep
appreciation to the Minister of State for Science andTechnology Policy of Japan, and Prof. Yoichi FUJIIE,
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of Japan. This
fourth Forum enables me to express my views and hopes that
this cooperation would be fruitful for all member countries andit certainly is for Indonesia.
Ladies and Gentlemen,1

As I have mentioned last year a law regarding theNational System for Research, Development, and Applicationof Science and Technology has been enacted by the IndonesianParliament to be the Law no 18, 2002. This law is expected tostrengthen, among others, the role of science and technology
for accelerating the achievement of various objectives set byour country. The final drafts of government regulations as thederivatives of this law have been completed and are expected
to be the instruments to implement the law to contribute
solutions on the economic recovery. Furthermore, the Ministryof Research and Technology is now step wisely having more
solid co-ordination program among research and development
institutions, universities, as well as with the industries andNGOs to set the “Landmarks 2020”, which are focused at thesupply security of food and energy, the two most essential
objects for not only survival, but also for wealth creation tosustain the development.
Ladies and Gentlemen,Security of supply of food for the whole nation is abasic needs that should be facilitated by the Indonesian
government. In this regard, the Ministry of Research andTechnology Office has to establish a road-map on R & D
activities to be carried out by all of the R&D institutions
sinergistically. One of those activities is the application ofnuclear technology in the field of agriculture, such as
irradiation induced new mutants of crops, improvement ofgrowth and quality of the ruminansia animals, and also post2harvest technology utilizing irradiation techniques. These areindeed congruent with activities of the IAEA as well as FNCA.
In Indonesia, the National Nuclear Energy Agency(BATAN), in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture,continues to carry out research and development in agriculture
joining the FNCA activities in this field, namely mutation
breeding and bio-fertilizer. While continuing the research anddevelopment on the topics relating to drought tolerance
sorghum and soybean mutants as well as insect resistanceorchids, BATAN also continues to develop new varieties ofrice. Some more candidates of the new rice varieties have beenindicated. In responding to some customer taste satisfaction,
three new varieties have been released in the year 2003,
namely: Kahayan, Winongo and Diah-suci.
It is also
attempted to establish supply security of the seeds located atsome provinces to enhance the supply system of the crops. In
the mean time the development of various formulae of foodsupplements for ruminansia animals has been progressing
aiming at the utilization of locally available material.
As a tropical country, Indonesia is also willing toparticipate in the activity related to the banana improvement,
and sweet potato projects as a part of Mutation Breeding
Project of FNCA for the forthcoming years.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the field of energy, availability and continue supplyof energy is a key role to develop our industry. Although
Indonesia is recognized as an energy exporter for theneighboring countries in the Asia and Pacific region, the3energy source per capita is relatively small while the reserve
locations are not so favorable as compared to the places ofdomestic demands. The Indonesian – IAEA study namely“Comprehensive Assessment of Different Energy Sources(CADES) for Electricity Generation in Indonesia” had been
carried out in 2001 – 2002 shows that evident. Final Report ofthe Study had been submitted formally by the IAEA to thePresident of the Republic of Indonesia on August 6th , 2003.
The report indicates that the energy mixed strategy has to be
applied in Indonesia by considering all of energy sources
available in this country, including also the use of NPP forelectricity generation to fulfill Java – Bali grid starting at about2016. The total share of nuclear energy is expecting to bearound 5 % of the total electricity generation in the year 2025,i.e. about 6,000 MWe. Should the Generation IV reactor
having small capacity be available with the economicalfeatures as mentioned to be the aim, introduction of the verysmall NPP might be realized earlier at smaller grids out side ofJava Islands.
In order to realize the energy mixed strategy, a lot ofworks have to be done. Dissemination of this study results toother relevant institutions, Departmental as well as Ministerial
Offices have been carried out to anticipate concerted efforts toovercome the problem on energy security for the next twentyyears from now on. At the same time public informa tion andeducation have to be performed also to all level of society inorder to get better public acceptance. The use of nuclear
energy as a part of the Long-term National Energy Policy now
is being drafted. We expect that the consultation withParliament on the use of NPP as stipulated by Nuclear Energy
Act No. 10 year 1997, can be done by sometime next year.

4The pre-project activities for NPP program are carried out
accordingly, such as activities relating to candidate site permit,
the NPP owner establishment, etc.
As you are all aware, the utilization of NPP willcertainly reduce the hazardous gas emission especially in Java
Island. If the use of NPP can not be realized, the electricity
should be generated by coal fired power plant, since the oilwill be very expensive by then as well as scarce for electricity
generation purposes. Additional used of coal to replace theamount of electricity being expected to be generated from NPP
will also make some other problems on coal transportation aswell as environmental effect, especially in Java Island where
the land is expected also to provide food for the people livingon. In this regard, Indonesia is therefore to support the CDM
which should be applicable also for the NPP projects asmentioned in the Kyoto Protocol.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
R & D on the enhancement of radiation and Isotope
application for medical and other industrial applications havebeen supported by government. In the field of medical
application: cancer treatment using radiation together with theapplication of the nuclear medical instruments for diagnosticsas well as theurapetics, and the use of radioisotopes andradiopharmaceuticals for palliative have been progressively
accepted. Participation of Indonesia to the FNCA Project
namely: Application of Radioisotopes and Radiation for
Medical Use such as breast and nasopharyngeal cancers willthus be very beneficial for our community.

5

In the field of industrial application, a preliminary
study on the use of electron beam machine for treatment ofeffluent gas from the coal power plant in Suralaya has been
done in cooperation with other institution and the electricity
state own company operating the plant. Other EBM utilizations
for industry, such as liquid waste treatment, hardening of thesurface metal, etc are also being studied. Co-operation in thisfield with FNCA member states is certainly welcomed.
For quite some years BATAN has been trying todevelop capability relating to accelerator taking into
consideration the future important roles of this machine. It isexpected that this activities support the medium term program
to build a demonstration accelerator to be utilized for researchand development in the fields of activities to achieve theLandmarks. It is planned that by the end of this year a homemade low energy electron accelerator is to be commissioned at
BATAN’s facility in Yogyakarta.
Our environmental quality has recently decreased
significantly due to various improper development dictating us
to do efforts for environment protection, among others:
monitoring and controlling heavy metal air pollutant in therural and urban area. Neutron activation analysis technique is
expected to contribute on the determination of air particulatematter, mainly on the concentration of elements contained in
the fine and coarse particles triggering the human healthhazards. Since the marine environmental pollution has also
been problem in this region, we expect in the long term
program, the activity relating to “Marine Environmental
Pollution Research and Monitoring Using nuclear based
methods” can be considered as a common program of theFNCA.

6

Utilization of nuclear techniques has also been carriedout in the activities relating to the development of renewableenergy in Indonesia. The use of natur al isotope for geothermalsuch as reserve calculation and management has been carriedout in cooperation with other institutes. Utilization of mutation
breeding techniques for “bio-oil” plants, i.e. Yatropha curcas
L., and Ricinus communis L. to innovate new varieties forplant and crop producing more bio-diesel rather thanutilization of crude palm oil, continues to be investigated.
In order to support all this development, Indonesia isalso strengthen the nuclear licensing authority, BAPETEN(Indonesia Nuclear Control Board), to make sure that all
nuclear activities in Indonesia is following safety procedure aswell as other International regulation. The strengthening ofBAPETEN is also important for the preparation of the NPP.
The important of availability of human resource withadequate number and qualification to support all nuclear
activities mentioned previously has been taken into serious
consideration by BATAN and BAPETEN. BATAN using its
center for education and training continues holding the train
the trainers on various courses as well as training for personnel
requiring certification on various competence of nuclear
technology. The polytechnique of nuclear science andtechnology is also improving the curiculae to satisfy theindustries. Cooperation with universities as well as
polytechniques has been extensified. It is still expected
however that the cooperation on human resource development
through FNCA will play an important role since there is a lackof expertise needed to suffis the requirement on future nuclear
industry demands.

7

Ladies and Gentlemen,
The on going FNCA activities have been progressing
as expected, i.e. the Utilization of Research Reactor covering
the production of Tc-99m, neutron activation analyses, andneutron scattering; Application of Radioisotopes and Radiation
for Agriculture consisting of mutation breeding, bio-fertilizer,
etc; Application of Radioisotopes and Radiation for Medical
Use such as breast and nasopharyngeal cancers; PublicInformation of Nuclear Energy; Radioactive Waste
Management; Nuclear Safety Culture; Human Resources
Development; and Application of Electron Accelerator.
We would like to confirm that we are ready to host theRadioactive Waste Management Workshop next week inJakarta, and the Utilization of Research Reactor Workshop thiscoming January 2004 in Serpong, as well as the workshop on
Mutation Breeding in June or December 2004 in Jakarta.
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please allow me to conclude by expressing our strong
endorsement for the FNCA and our readiness to participate
fully in all of its activities. Lastly, I would like also to express
our deep gratitude to our host, JAIF, on behalf of the Atomic
Energy Commission of Japan and Minister of State for Science8and Technology Policy of Japan for convening this fourth
Meeting of the FNCA.
Thank you very much,
State Minister for Research and Technology,
Republic of Indonesia
M. Hatta RAJASA.

9