REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BATAM -- The Batam Administration Body (BP Batam) said it has carried out a study to look for a safe place of a nuclear power plant in that area.

"Study has been made in a number of islands in cooperation with the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan)," spokesman of BP Batam Purnomo Andiantono said here on Monday.

Purnomo said although study has been made on the location it is too early to draw a conclusion that Batam would soon have a nuclear power plant.

It would take around 10 years to build a nuclear power plant, he said.

"We and BATAN have carried out the pre-feasibility study. After that we would begin socialization. Therefore, it still is a long way to go," he said.

BP Batam has also carried out study of the possibility of building a power plant utilizing sea wave energy, but the plan was not feasible, he said, adding the sea waves in Batam are not strong enough.

"We have also studies other sources of energy but none was feasible," he said.

A Russian state energy company Rosatom has visited Batam several times offering cooperation to build a nuclear power plant.

Director of Business Development of Rasatom Anna Kudryavtseva said during her recent visit to Batam ,a power plant would need around 40 hectares of land.

Anna said Rosatom has built a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 2,400 MW in Turkey.

Experts have said that nuclear power plant is much more efficient and cleaner than oil or gas fired power plants.

A nuclear power plant could have a power generating capacity of up to 4,800 megawatts.

Nuclear power plant was already planned during the administration of President Suharto.

The first nuclear power plant was to be built on the foot of mount Muria in northeastern region of Central Java, but the plan was strongly protested by local people.

Since then there was no serious plan to build nuclear power plant in the country.

Batan deputy technology chief Taswanda Taryo once said Indonesia would never achieve its long term development plan without building nuclear power plants to supply enough power for its industry.

Taryo said the development of nuclear power would need to start now if the country is to have a nuclear power plant in operation in 2025, "Building a nuclear power plant would take 10 years . If we want to have ones by 2015, we have to start development now," he was quoted as saying last year.

He said development of other source of energy would never be enough to keep pace with the fast growing demand for power.

However, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said has said Indonesia will not resort to nuclear energy to meet its power requirement.

"We have arrived at the conclusion that this is not the time to build a nuclear power plant. We still have many alternatives and we do not need to raise any controversies," the minister said.

In addition, a bigger hurdle in planning to build a nuclear power plant in then country is the people's disapproval. Many Indonesians still share the trauma of nuclear disasters experienced by people in certain other countries.

The government has a target to build power plants with a total capacity of 35,000 megawatts to be operational in 2019.

No room for nuclear power plant in the program, which is dominated by development of renewable energy sources such as geothermal, hydro power, solar energy, gas and coal fired power plants.

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