The Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Mohamad Nasir, said Indonesia has a sufficient number of nuclear experts to develop the technology. Indonesia has several universities which have study programs in nuclear science and engineering, the minister pointed out here on Tuesday.
“The Bandung Institute of Technology has engineering and physics program, and the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta has nuclear physics program. So, we have a lot of human resources adept in nuclear engineering,” Nasir explained ass reported by Antaranews.
However, according to him, the Indonesian human resources in nuclear technology have not been working in the country because there is no nuclear technology development program in Indonesia yet.
As a result, they are working in other countries where the nuclear technology is well developed. “A lot of our human resources are working in Japan and Russia, and even very likely to work in Malaysia,” Nasir observed.
In addition to human resources, the minister added, Indonesia also has abundant nuclear elements in nature, such as uranium, which has not been explored for nuclear power plant.
He stated that the ministry, together with the National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan), continues to conduct research and development in the field of nuclear energy to generate power, develop treatments and build a nuclear reactor.
Nasir also wanted Indonesia to immediately utilize its nuclear potentials as an alternative source of energy. He stressed that the nuclear power plant and other nuclear utilizations are safe.