Is it so easy to fool Indonesians?

There was a very short article in yesterday's Post, one I can't find online. Yet it's probably one of the most serious attempts to hoodwink the Indonesian public I've ever come across.

Indonesia and France on Thursday signed an agreement on cooperation in nuclear power plant research.

The agreement came amid a long-standing controversy over government plans to build a nuclear power plant in the central Java town of Jepara to ease the electricity deficit plaguing the country.

After signing the memorandum of understanding with French Ambassador Catherine Boivineau, State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman said, "There have been no reports of problems with Frances nuclear power plant technology, which is extraordinary."

What is truly extraordinary is that the minister hasn't done any research using the technology available to the likes of you and me - a search engine.

This calendar page compiled by Greenpeace gives some examples of the everyday nuclear incidents that have occurred all over the world. It demonstrates how technological failures coupled with human error risk public health and the environment on an almost daily basis.

The first accident listed only dates from 1954, thus ignoring the first A-bomb tests, and goes up to 1993. However, it still lists the following twenty, count 'em, 'accidents' and equipment failures in French nuclear power plants.

1967 November 7: Release of radioactivity at Grenoble nuclear power plant
1968 October 2: Leakage at La Hague reprocessing plant
1969 October 17: Fuel elements melt at St Laurent des Eaux nuclear power plant
1980 September 22: Pump failure causes release of radioactive water at La Hague reprocessing plant
1981 January 6: Accident at La Hague reprocessing plant
1983 October 1: Technical failure and human error cause accident at Blayas nuclear power plant
1986 August 19: Flooding at the Cattenom nuclear power plant
1988 April 28: Release of 5000 Curies of tritium gas from the Bruyere le Chatel military nuclear complex
1988 November 23: Two control rods jammed at Blayais nuclear power plant
1989 April 1: Control rod failure at Gravelines nuclear power plant
1990 January 28: Pump failure during a shut-down at Gravelines nuclear power plant
1990 May 26: During refuelling, five cubic meters of radioactive water spilled at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant
1990 September 16: Superphenix Fast Breeder Reactor is closed down due to technical failures
1990 November 4: 2 workers irradiated during refuelling at Blayais nuclear power plant
1991 June1: Failure of core cooling system at Belleville nuclear power plant
1992 July 22: Two workers contaminated at Dampierre nuclear power plant
1992 July 22: Temperature rise in storage pool at Gravelines nuclear power plant
1992 August 28: Fire in electro-generator at St.Alban nuclear power plant
1993 January 20: Technical failure at Paluel causes subcooling accident
1993 October 22: Instrumentation and Control failure at Saint Alban nuclear power plant

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is engaged in nuclear diplomacy. Sarkozy has been leveraging France’s leading civilian nuclear technology to gain diplomatic, commercial and military advantages with countries in the Middle East, as well parts of Africa and Asia.

Since taking office last May, Sarkozy has signed deals worth billions of dollars to build nuclear power reactors or offer technical advice to a number of Arab states including Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and now Indonesia.

The deal with Libya has really upset the island state of Malta because they feel threatened by their proximity to a potential nuclear accident.

You see, one took place between Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 July at the Tricastin plant in Bollene, 40km from Avignon, in the heart of the Côte du Rhone wine-producing region. After a plant malfunction, some 30,000 litres of a solution containing 12% enriched uranium overflowed from a reservoir into the nearby Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers.

A spokesperson for France’s nuclear safety agency, Evangelia Petit, admitted that the concentration of uranium in the two rivers was 1,000 times higher than normal after the spill. Enriched uranium is highly carcinogenic and a potential source of radiation poisoning, but Petit downplayed the consequences of last week’s leak, claiming that the risk posed to humans was “slight”.

Nonetheless, inhabitants of nearby towns and villages have been banned from fishing, swimming, drawing well water or using water from the polluted rivers for irrigation purposes

A "slight risk to humans"? Is that a similar cover up to that of the recent release of plutonium into the sewage system of Boulder, Colorado, which was “below the legal limits”?

If Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman really did not know about the most recent accident in France, then he should be fired for gross incompetence.

And if he did know .... ?