Indonesia approves plans for 4 new nuclear power plants.

[NNadir]

Here you have directly from the mouth of Soedyartomo Soentono:

Jakarta, 18 April (AKI) - The Indonesian government announced on Monday that it has approved a project to build the country's first nuclear power plant in central Java on the Muria peninsula. Construction is to begin in 2010 with the aim of producing electricity by 2016. The project will involve the construction of four power plants, each with a capacity of 7,000 megawatts.Indonesia - the world's fourth most populous country with its 214 million people - currently relies on hydro, coal and fuel generated electricity. "Nuclear power plants can produce energy at about 3.5 US cents per kilowatt if their capacity is above 600 megawatts" chief of the National Atomic Energy Agency Soedyartomo Soentono said. The national electricity company currently spends twice the amount for equivalent energy produced from oil. The government aims to reduce oil use for energy production from the current 55 percent to 10 to 20 percent by 2020.

[Dead_Parrot]

1. 4 x 7,000 MW ?!

Wow, No-one could accuse them of pissing about. That must be MWt, not MWe, surely...

[NNadir]

3. I don't know the details. They could be large nuclear parks.

Japan's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station has a capacity of 8,200 MWe using 7 reactors.

http://www2.jnes.go.jp/atom-db/en/general/atomic/ke02a13/info_h.html

I understand that the reactors will be of Russian design.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. True, but...

...You'd expect it of the Japanese (or the French, for that matter). Indonesia turning around and dropping that sort of plant is like Finland announcing they've just put a man on the moon.

[NNadir]

6. I don't think the comparison holds. The number of space faring

nations is rather small. Thirty five nations, on the other hand, plan nuclear capacity. I expect that the number will grow. There is a lot of technical expertise available for nuclear power plants available and that technology is for sale.

Indonesia's announcement was explicit in declaring that the reasons for building the plants were economic, as they have passed their peak oil condition and need to replace fossil fuels.

Indonesia, which mostly depends on coal and oil for its electric power generation, has an excellent potential to eliminate greenhouse gases from its electricity production schemes. I note that it also has some impressive geothermal resources, as well, as it is on the ring of fire.

[MadisonProgressive]

2. We might as well just bomb them now and get it over with...

[phantom power]

7. ???

[applegrove]

4. A country the size of Texas with the population of the USA? They

probably really, really need the power plants.