Megawati Soekarnoputri, the chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), stated on Monday that the country should grow its nuclear capability in a manner similar to that of North Korea. She also urged the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) to begin constructing a nuclear reactor.
Megawati stated that it was not too late for Indonesia to catch up with nuclear-weapons states like North Korea in a statement that was made during the signing of an agreement between BRIN and the state-owned broadcaster TVRI.
Megawati made this comment during the signing of the agreement. It is never too late, provided that we are able to build the technology. According to Antara’s transcription of Megawati’s comments, “We can catch up with countries that have nuclear programs.” The matriarch of the PDI-P organization stated that limitations on budgets should not prevent the development of nuclear initiatives.
Megawati holds to North Korea’s nuclear development as an example.
How is it possible for a country like North Korea to advance in its nuclear program? According to Megawati, the issue lies with a lack of available human resources. Since the previous president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, released a government decree in 2014 that proclaimed nuclear plants “a last resort option” to power the country, Indonesia has been moving away from the idea of constructing nuclear power plants.
In its place, the rule gives more priority to the generation of electricity from coal, natural gas, and renewable sources of energy, namely geothermal, solar, wind, hydropower, bio, and tidal energy. Over the course of the past several years, a number of private companies have shown an interest in the construction of nuclear power stations with a lower capacity.
Power producer ThorCon International Pte Ltd, located in Washington, has been in talks with Indonesian regulators and state-owned companies in an effort to establish a floating nuclear power station with a capacity of 500 megawatts in the Southeast Asian nation by the year 2027.