Nuclear Power Industry Needs Experts ....

... who can google.

Earlier this year, in August, The Jakarta Post published an article of mine entitled 'New clear thinking before nuclear power.' Unfortunately, it would appear that no-one in BATAN (Indonesia's Nuclear Energy Agency) read it.

If they had, then Tri Murni Soedyartomo, a senior researcher at BATAN, would not, as reported in the Post on 12th November (Nuclear power needed before 2025, warn experts), have stated that "as fossil fuels could run out in 15 to 20 years’ time, Indonesia should build nuclear power plants."

It's too easy, glib even, to list the many failures of other experts to build adequate infrastructure or to prevent (and thereby cause) major catastrophes. The root cause is generally the failure to consider consequences. For example, the recent flood in Pondok Labu, East Jakarta, was caused by the narrowing of the River Krukut from six meters to two. In the immortal word of Homer Simpson, "Doh."

Another reason for these failures is the lack of reasoning, of not following President SBY's dictum at the beginning of 2008 to "Think Outside The Box". Mind you, some have suggested to me that the greatest failing is in actually think inside the box.

With minimal googling, Ibu Murni could have discovered that it is an illusion to build new nuclear power plants in the short time she suggests. The time frame needed for formalities, planning and building of a new nuclear power generation plant in the western democracies is in the range of 20 to 30 years. In other words, with the best will in the world, it would be impossible to have a nuclear power plant online before 2031, six years after her supposed deadline.

That Indonesia would need ten such power plants to meet the shortfall in generated electricity indicates a much longer time frame, and therein lies another major problem. The current estimate of the reserves of the fuel needed for nuclear power plants, uranium, are only sufficient for forty years at the current rate of 'consumption. By the time that Indonesia's hypothetical plants come onstream, uranium will have gone the way of fossil fuels.

So, what are the alternatives?Markus Wauran, a researcher from the Indonesia Nuclear Society (HIMNI), was in agreement with Ibu Murni, saying that Indonesia was prone to an energy crisis due to the country’s declining fossil fuel reserves. There are few who would disagree with his statement that: “We should consider building power plants to utilize other energy sources."

However, he then suggested that alternatives such as geothermal energy and wind power needed to be built "on a massive scale” and that "solar power plants could prove to be costly as one megawatt of energy would require building one hectare of solar cells."

This is bullshit.

Because of declining equipment costs, the spot price of solar panels has dropped about 40 percent this year, and it is suggested that the price could drop still further to match that of coal-fired plants within ten years. This is a great incentive to not go down the nuclear path, vide India which expects to have installed a solar power capacity of 20,000 megawatts, equivalent to about 18 nuclear reactors, by 2022.

But why should "massive" power plants be built in the first place? These are intended to supply large populations and if the intent is to supply the estimated 30% of Indonesia's population not connected to the national grid, mostly because they live in isolated villages, then an expansion of the transmission line network would be needed. Estimates, which require a knowledge of physics I admit is beyond me, indicate that about 10% is lost over long distances.

All power plants should therefore be sited to serve local needs. To serve the needs of the nigh on 13 million inhabitants and commuters of Jakarta, an ever-growing number, this could mean that a power plant should be built in Jakarta's 'Golden Triangle', rather than, say, Bangka in Sumatra. As suggested by former President Habibie, and former Minister of Research and Technology, at a conference on renewable energy in February 2010, Bali and Lombok could be served by the utilization of the kinetic force of ocean currents in the Lombok Strait,

Away from such major population centers, however, there is surely no need to build power plants with the capacity to generate many megawatts of electricity when kilowatts are sufficient to power lights, TVs and to charge hand phones.

A number of small scale projects have been successfully developed throughout Indonesia.

• Nusantara Development Initiatives (NDI) sponsors Project Light which aims to “bring light to lives” by introducing environmentally-friendly solar-powered lamps to villages with scarce electricity in Indonesia.

• Hitachi High-Tech of Japan has completed testing of a combined solar power generation and water purification system in the village of Bekkae in South Sulawesi.


• PALAPA is a program initiated by students from the Bandung Institute of Technology which aims to build energy independent villages that take advantage of the renewable energy source, primarily solar and hydro, available locally, and turn it into economic activities to help support the welfare of the villages.

There are undoubtedly many more projects to emulate, some sponsored by state electricity company, PLN, who have agreed to increase fees paid for power produced from biomass, biogas and city waste. This is good as they obviously don't have much of a clue about nuclear power.

It has been widely reported that State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan, a former PLN managing director, has approved the construction of a 200-kilowatt nuclear plant starting this year. I figure that would be enough for our fairly short street for a day.

Whatever, we can also put off the need for capital intensive power plants by reducing our collective demand for electricity. In pre-reformasi times we were regularly extolled to Hemat Energi, Hemat Biaya - Save Energy, Save Costs.

If we can remember that mantra, and obey it, then we can hopefully forget the pipedreams of BATAN and PLN.

.....................................................................

Footnote

With French Greenpeace activists today breaching the security of nuclear plants this week, continued worry about the long-term effects of the tsunami-hit Fukushima plant in Japan, which until yesterday was leaking radioactive water into the Pacific and has yet to decide how to safely dispose of 30 million tons of radioactive soil, it's surely nonsensical for Indonesia, which can't keep bridges standing for more than ten years, to even contemplate keeping a nuclear power plant safe for long.

The Slaughter of Innocents

Anyone interested in the slaughter of our cousins, the orangutans of Kalimantan and Sumatra, because oil palm plantation managers view them as "pests" will find that the UK Observer newspaper is giving great prominence to the issue.

Read it here

New Clear Thinking Power Before Nuclear Power

Indonesian studies scholars rarely attempt to shed light on how technology is particularly suited to serve the political interests of those who seek to control other groups or to establish a political order maintaining the status quo.
Sulfikar Amir: The State and the Reactor: Nuclear Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia (2010)

Back in March, the spokesman of the Nuclear Energy Agency (BATAN) Ferhat Aziz stated that Batan has sufficient human resources to support the development of a nuclear power plant.

That leads to the question of how he defines 'human resources' because he then went on to say that "the project would not go ahead anytime soon because there were so many factors to take into consideation - such as the environment, climate, geology and geography and including finding a location not prone to tsunamis, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes."

Presumably there are no environmentalists, climatologists, geologists or map readers on the BATAN staff, thus putting the lie to his initial statement. There's also the small matter of not having enough plumbers. In researching his paper Sulfikar Amir used the toilets a few times at the BATAN head office in Jakarta, and observed that "the toilet was not as clean as those found in five-star hotels, and the sink was leaking."

The same could be said about my house, but I'm not planning to develop a nuclear power plant any time soon. There also can't be anyone with sufficient knowledge to maintain a website either because the  BATAN Radioactive Waste Technology Center webpage has been "down for maintenance" for at least four years.

Most of us presume that the official spokesperson of whatever organisation or person is authorised to inform the public, via the media, of the 'official line'. However, BATAN is far from transparent in its dealings.

On Tuesday 4th July, BATAN head Hudi Hastowo told reporters that Bangka Belitung was considered to be the most suitable site for a nuclear power plant, due to geological and geographical reasons - there's a granite sub-strata and the sea is relatively shallow so tsunamis are unlikely.

He then went on to say, as quoted in the Post, that Batan finished feasibility and site studies in Bangka Belitung in January and had planned to announce the results of the bidding to build the power plant in March. However, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on March 11 created political and social situations that were inconvenient for announcing the results.

Thanks for the honesty, Pak Hudi, but authorising Ferhat Aziz to cloud the issue is a strong indication that your organisation is not to be trusted.

In his very readable paper, Pak Amir analyses how in post-colonial Indonesia the "interplay between politics and technology continued to influence Indonesian politics in the postcolonial era, where the role of technology became more pivotal as it contributed to the construction of ideology and nation-building processes."

B.J. Habibie Ph.D, who holds some 46 patents, is the obvious example of this. In 1974, having returned from his studies and work as an aeronautical engineer in Germany, he was made CEO of state-owned enterprise PT. Industri Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio (IPTN) in Bandung, named after an early Indonesian aviation pioneer.

In 1985 the 'N' was replaced with 'Nusantara' (Archipelago). Following the Asian economic crisis (krismon), in 2000 the company was restructured and renamed PT. Dirgantara Indonesia (Indonesian Aerospace Inc.)

In that year, B.J. Habibie was already an ex-President.

And just this month (July 2011), the government has said that it will inject Rp.2 trillion ($234 million) to Indonesian Aerospace to keep the debt-ridden firm afloat. This is in addition to its unpaid debt to the government of.1.1 trillion ($129 million).

But that's peanuts compared to the cost of building and maintaining a nuclear power plant, cost that must ultimately be borne by the state. The upfront capital investment required to build a 1400 MW plant in the USA is currently about $2 billion.

Quoted in the Post in early July, Bangka Belitung Governor Eko Maulana Ali said: "To build a 1-gigawatt (=1000MW) power plant, we need approximately 35 trillion rupiah (US$4 billion). As we are planning to build two power plants in the Muntok and Permis areas, 70 trillion rupiah is needed. The government is not concerned on the cost as many foreign investors are ready to support the project."

But in his press conference, Hudi Hastowo said that to supply 2 percent of the electricity demand Indonesia would need to construct four nuclear power plants with a capacity of 4,000 MW. Where would the other two be sited? Presumably Governor Eko is talking up a higher budget because of expected inflation and the usual over-run costs.

As for the foreign investors, among others, interest has been shown in the past few years by Korea's state-run, Hydro & Nuclear Power Co, Mitsubishi of Japan and Russia's electricity company Raoues.

The latter is interesting in that in 2006 Gorontalo Governor Fadel Muhamad - now the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries - had a wizard scheme to overcome Indonesia's energy crisis. He announced a deal with them to build Indonesia's first nuclear power plant on a ship floating off the shore of Gorontalo.

There are a number of other factors which no-one seems keen to talk about.

Apart from the need to recruit highly qualified and trained qualified staff, presumably from abroad as there are none in Indonesia, there is the small matter of the fuel, uranium.

There is doubt about the amount of reserves In Indonesia. It is estimated that there are 29,000 tons in West Kalimantan and 24,000 tons in Bangka Belitung. Each 1000MW power plant would require 200 tons per annum, which would mean that if, and it's a big IF, all the reserves were extracted, purified and transported to the four power plants, they would be able to operate for c.36 years, some ten years shorter than the planned 'life expectancy' of most nuclear plants. For further plants to come onstream, uranium would have to be imported, yet it is estimated that world reserves would only last for 44 years for the c.436 plants currently in operation worldwide.

So, the outlook for the nuclear industry is limited. And then must be added the costs of decommissioning as well as the yet to be resolved problem of the radioactive waste which will remain lethal for 100,000 years, some 80,000 years longer than homo sapiens have been around. And all because of the 'need' to preserve a short-term political status quo? Or brown envelopes?

....................................................................  
Originally published in the Jakarta Post 8th August 2011 I'm posting this now because yet another article has appeared in the Post in which more BADAN "experts" suggest that nuclear plants are needed NOW. I will be submitting another riposte to the Post.

Indonesia may host man-made 'orangutan island'

I very rarely copy and paste anything straight from another publication, preferring to provide links to my references and sources. However, the article below, taken from the front page of yesterday's Guardian Online does not need much by way of commentary, that is, apart from one line: the project appears to be hampered "by the byzantine Indonesian system."

...........................................................................

Borneo male orangutan Wandoo

A UK conservationist plans to create four new islands in northern Sumatra for sick and injured orangutans currently in cages. Those who are unable to be reintroduced to the natural habitat would be destined for the new islands.

A British conservationist is leading an audacious plan to create a chain of man-made islands in northern Sumatra that would liberate the Indonesian island's population of caged orangutans.

Dr Ian Singleton aims to create four islands of grass, shrubs and trees for sick and injured orangutans - those who are unable to be reintroduced to the natural habitat - to roam, freeing them from the 3x4m cages in which they currently reside. Singleton is currently in the process of securing land for the islands.

The ideal location would be near the coast with a consistent supply of fresh water via a stream or river. Diggers, operated by local contractors, will then carve up the land to create moats, thereby encircling the land with water. The earth removed by the digging will be used to landscape the islands to make them ape-friendly.

Orangutans, which can't swim, will be reluctant to leave the islands due to the water, although Singleton plans to erect an electric fence to ensure the creatures don't drown. "Depending on the site, it shouldn't take us too long to create the islands, as long as the moats don't leak," Singleton told the Guardian from northern Sumatra.

"The biggest challenge is finding the right land that has the right security and a water supply that isn't full of effluent. Finding a clean stream in Sumatra can be difficult as there's lots of pollution, but we have the option of creating a bio-filtration system to purify the water."

Singleton and his team have released more than 150 orangutans into the wild over the past decade, but currently have 50 further apes in medical quarantine. A handful of orangutans have been earmarked for immediate transportation to the island, including twins that made headlines earlier this year due to both of their parents being blind.

Singleton has been in Sumatra since 2001, following stints at zoos in Jersey and Edinburgh. He leads the Orangutan Conservation Programme in the country and is funded by a Swiss NGO, PanEco.

While the immediate aim is to protect the captive orangutans, Singleton hopes the project will inform local people about the threat to the animal's survival via an education centre and guided walks. There are only an estimated 6,000 orangutans left in Sumatra, due to deforestation and conflict with humans.

"These orangutans are refugees from forests that don't exist any more," he says. "You have animals like Leuser who has been blinded by an air rifle and you don't want him living for 45 years in a small rusty cage. I want people in Medan (capital of the north Sumatra province) to see how these orangutans have been shot or had their arms chopped off or got hepatitis B.

"There needs to be a change in behaviour, otherwise the project is a waste. It's all very nice getting westerners here, but we need to reach the people who are chopping down the trees here and shooting the orangutans because they're in their habitat.


"Lots of middle class people, even policemen, steal orangutans and have them as a status symbol. The irony is that the people who are meant to uphold the law here are the ones with orangutans in cages."

Singleton says that he is close to acquiring a 20 ha (49.4 acre) plot of land to create the islands, but claims he has been hindered by the byzantine Indonesian system.

"I fluctuate between cautiously optimistic [and] very pessimistic," he says. "The business lobby is so powerful here and vote buying so prevalent, that it's hard to change anything. One minute the government will say that it wants to protect the forest and then they will grant a permit to clear 15,000 hectares of forest. Very few people are prosecuted for keeping an orangutan as a pet."

Singleton is working with the Australian Orangutan Project to raise funds for the island development.

Inside Indo's Organic Rice

fr. an interview in Time Out Jakarta

Emily Sutanto is one of the lucky gals awarded the title of  "10 Most Powerful Women in Indonesia 2010." Not your typical farmer, Sutanto has also been named in the "100 Unique Indonesian Exporters," and has contributed as a guest speaker for the Biofach Germany 2010 conference on  the development of Indonesia's fair trade. This farming guru talks to TOJ about organic rice in Indonesia.

How did you get interested in starting this type of business?
It was definitely not something that I was expecting. I had a career as an entertainment artiste in Singapore when I heard about the problem from a family friend that some organic rice farmers were producing beautiful rice but they couldn't sell it at a fair price. I was skeptical as to whether it was really organic because producers here usually just slap the word 'organic' on their packaging without certification. It is just a marketing tool to achieve higher profits.

So I went to take a look at the farm, and I was blown away by the enthusiastic spirit and the method, the farmers were using the SRI system of Rice Intensification. SRI is a better of way of growing rice, using less resources (less water and fewer seeds) but producing more health benefits for us (more nutritious grains for consumers, better health for farmers as they never come into contact with the harmful chemicals usually used on paddy fields), the environment (water saving, less methane gas because the rice is submerged in decomposed paddy roots that release methane gas and paddy fields are one of the biggest contributors of methane gas in Asia, biological diversity - the millions of soil organisms that work together to produce fertile soil is not drowned out by a flooded field), and humanity (more crops per hectare - up to 78 more, which addresses food security as we do not have enough food in the world, and more income for farmers as their land becomes more productive).

When I saw what they were doing I thought this is definitely something that the world should support. So I started working with them and taught them so they could understand what certification is all about, and bring them up to the international level which is very very tough. Finally, in July 2009, we received our certification. We passed the US, European, Japanese Organic Standards which are the three strictest in the world, and they are also fair trade certified, which protects the human rights of the farmers and gives them a sustainably premium income.

What inspired you to carry on ways of working with farmers?
I see the fruits of my labor. I think the biggest hurdle here is the mindset and this is especially true for farmers as they are not exposed to the world. Before any change can happen, you need to open your mind and view different perspectives. The farmers that I work with changed from ordinary small scale farmers who were slow to adapt to changes, stuck in Indonesia's bureaucratic mindset, to innovative small business farmers who now understand that learning is for life and welcome changes, and are independent and at times come up with innovative solutions.

They are doers who think globally, but act locally. This I can’t describe; it is very fulfilling for my soul, seeing that the nurturing I have given over the years has changed their lives. Sixty per cent of Indonesia's population are farmers and it is very sad to me that they are also seen as the lowest in the social hierarchy. They do not know how or what to do most of the time, because no one guides and teaches them. They have the purest hearts.

Was it difficult to work with other agencies/government sectors in relation to your business?
Yes of course! The bureaucracy here is crazy! When I started this project there was a lot that I had to do to convince others of and a lot to prove also! I think there are too many people here who are just talk, so I think the government also does not know who to support properly. However, I persisted and informed the relevant department of the progress and now they are very proud of this project which is often referred to as an exemplary project that cares for farmers' welfare and organic farming in Indonesia.

Can you please explain the difference between organically-grown rice and the regular rice in the market?
Organic rice is rice that is grown according to strict organic standards and is certified. A major misconception is that certification is a lab test showing that the rice is free of chemicals. This is not an organic certification because organic certification is done by an independant organic certification body accredited by the relevant govenment authorities that set the standard.

Example, for the USDA organic standard, the government only appoints a handful of certification bodies that are capable of inspecting. These bodies check everything, all processes involved. Not only does each farmer and his land have to be registered and inspected, the warehouse, drying, milling facilities have to be certified too. Even the seller (exporter) and the buyer (importer) have to be organically certified. This ensures that no contamination can occur to the final product when the buyer buys them. There is no point if the produce is organic, and it is mixed in the processing with a non-organic product. This is why rice that passes a simple lab test for pesticides is not organic, and can fail the certification because lab tests only check one point of the journey and organic certification involves so much more and checks every point of the journey until the product reaches the consumer.

How do you feel about other markets of rice in the South East Asian region? Is there a big potential of growth?
Thailand and Vietnam are huge producers and exporters of rice. They have plenty of government support and subsidies and advanced technology that makes their prices of rice lower than that of the rest of the world. However, climate change is affecting their productivity, as it is also for many other countries. I think that they are already at their peak, while for Indonesia, it can be managed better to produce more rice.
.....................................................................
Visit Indonesia Organic  for in-depth information about organic crops, fair trade and other sustainable practices in Indonesia.

Green Gleanings 5

I subscribe to the weekly email sent out by to Eco Geek. I'm particularly interested in small scale inventions and developments which could, with a little will, be applied here in Indonesia.

Street Lamps Powered by Garbage
A cool new design concept marries composting with clean energy: garbage-powered street lamps. The Gaon Street Light from designer Haneum Lee keeps food waste out of landfills while keeping streets illuminated. The street lamp features a garbage bin at its base where food products can be deposited. The waste is then composted and the methane from the waste powers the lamp at the top.

A No-Draw Charger
AT&T has just announced a USB-based telephone charger that does not pull electricity from the wall when it's not charging a phone. I don't know about you, but my charger is plugged in 100% of the time. That charger pulls a tiny amount of energy from the wall 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Multiply that by 100 million chargers in Indonesia and there's probably at least one coal-fired power plant dedicated entirely to that wasted power.

Better yet is a charger which doesn't draw any energy at all from the grid.

Pedal Your Way to a Charged Cell Phone
Nokia has just unveiled a way to charge your cell phone without hitting up the grid - a bicycle charger kit. Dedicated cyclists may never have to plug a phone into a wall again. The Bicycle Charger Kit mounts onto the handlebars of your bike and includes a holder for your cell phone. The charger plugs into the phone and then your pedaling does the work. The faster you pedal, the faster the phone charges. At just shy of 4 mph, the charging starts and if you can up your speed to 8 mph, the phone will charge as fast as being plugged into a wall outlet.

Going at 8 mph (13 mph) is rarely possible in Jakarta, but perhaps they can be installed in fitness centre machines.

Bead-Filled Washing Machine Uses 90% Less Water
A new washing machine design uses 90 percent less water and reduces utility bills by 30 percent by cleaning clothes with tiny plastic beads. The machine by UK company Xeros Ltd uses 3mm-long nylon beads that can get into all crevices and folds of clothing and absorb stains and dirt. Stephen Burkinshaw, a polymer chemist at Leeds University, discovered that nylon beads at 100 percent humidity could attract stains away from clothing and into the center of the beads, preventing deposition back onto the clothes.

Solar Refrigerators Save Lives
The distribution of vaccines through the developing world is sometimes limited by a lack of available refrigeration for the storage of the vaccines. In some parts of the world, more than half of the vaccines spoil before they can be administered. Millions of lives and billions of dollars are lost due to a lack of refrigeration. A new solar refrigerator developed by the Appropriate Technology Collaborative can provide lifesaving cold storage for vaccines with an inexpensive system that can be built from locally available materials. The refrigerator needs no electricity and should require only minimal maintenance since it has no valves or moving parts.

There are of course other bits of Green Stuff which may otherwise be overlooked.

Such as Whale Poo.
Australian scientists have discovered that whale poo is not only helping ocean plant life to flourish, but also increasing the ocean's ability to absorb CO2. Because whales' diets are made up largely of iron-rich krill (small crustaceans), their droppings are a great fertilizer for marine plants, helping them to grow like weeds (or algae). These plants then do their part by absorbing CO2 as they grow, a process that scientists have tried to amp up (unsuccessfully) in Antarctic waters with iron fertilization.

It makes sense, therefore, to sign the latest petition being organised by Avaaz.org.

In one week, the International Whaling Commission will hold its final vote on a proposal to legalize commercial whale hunting for the first time in a generation. The outcome rests on whose voices are heard most clearly in the final hours: the pro-whaling lobby - or the world's people?

Update – Pulau Balang Bridge

I first wrote a month ago about the shenanigans in Balikpapan Bay which, thanks to land speculation and massive investment, largely from South Korea, will enrich local businessfolk and higher echelon government officials at the expense of the environment and local aspirations.

The following email from Stanislav Lhota is an update.

Dear All,

There is more news in the media (in bhs. Indonesia) about Pulau Balang Bridge, and all is bad ...

This article is basically a compilation of several similar media releases. On 12th March Governor Awang Faroek of East Kalimantan attended Agrinex Internasional Expo 2010 in Jakarta, where he was lobbying to find investors for Pulau Balang, besides other problematic projects, such as further extensions of palm oil plantations.

The other news concerns the ferry Somber, which has ceased operation due to the land ownership conflict. Balikpapan local government tried to buy the land but there was already an agreement. The Governor recently refused to intervene, stating that according to the tata ruang provinsi (Provincial Spatial Plan) transport will be directed to Pulau Balang, so there will be no further investment to improve the ferry transport.

Stanislav Lhota, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Dept. Zool., Univ. of South Bohemia & Usti nad Labem Zoo

Stan is planning to launch a website soon, possibly in blog format, which will give much more information, including environmental studies, than I can offer here.

If the Indonesian government is serious about being a world leader in environmental protection, a claim which cynics such as myself believe is a political smokescreen, then they should examine the background to the proposal to drive a major road through a national park and coastal mangroves and listen to the voices which elect them as well as the views of internationally eminent scientists such as Stan.

His publications are available here and you can also support him by email.