ESDM Ministry Assembles Team to Prep PLTN Development

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ministry is pursuing its plans to establish the country’s first nuclear power plant (PLTN)—as evident in the issuance of a ministerial regulation on the matter by ESDM Minister Arifin Tasrif.

“For the formation of a team pertaining the foundational structuring of the development of the nuclear power plant,” said Dadan Kusdiana, the ministry’s Director-General for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, in a virtual press conference on Monday, December 17, 2021.

Dadan said throughout 2021 the ministry had collected data of related vendors. “Particularly small-scale PLTN, including their technology,” he said.

He added that in 2022 the ministry would focus on the formation of a commercial PLTN, which would be accomplished through international ties related to the studies on the PLTN development.

Earlier reports said the planned construction of the PLTN was announced last year when the ESDM Ministry set the projected commercial operation date (COD) of the PLTN in 2049.

The ministry’s Director for New Energy and Renewable Energy, Chrisnawan Anditya, said further development of the PLTN would kick off after 2035.

Chrisnawan said that in the roadmap of the energy transition to neutral carbon the ESDM Ministry projected the COD of the nation’s first PLTN would be in 2049. “And in 2060 the PLTN’s capacity will reach 35 gigawatts (GW),” he said in mid-November 2021.

Read: Nuclear Plant Progress Hampered by Politics, Not Tech

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