It's good to have Indonesia Anonymus back with yet another excellent post. But why must you keep us waiting for so long guys? They ask why Norway cares for Indonesia, but Indonesia seemingly doesn't.
Oigal of Greenstump may well have a partial answer to that. Even though he is pro-nuclear, perhaps like these African Americans, he has joined me in my anti-nuclear industry crusade. This is solely from the perspective of what is manageable here in Indonesia. His stance isn't so dissimilar from mine, except I believe that no nation has proved itself capable of managing this extremely dangerous technology.With Indonesia’s Nuclear Power proposal even Blind Freddy could see that a Nuclear Power Plant/Industry in Indonesia would be an unmitigated economic and environmental disaster!
Oigal then quotes from a press statement from the Indonesian Nuclear Technology Supervisory Agency to prove his case. Amongst the points offered is that "Japan is often hit by earthquakes but has avoided nuclear accidents.". The last part of that statement is patently false. Check out this BBC story from 1999.
Radiation levels at the Tokaimura nuclear fuel-processing plant in north-east Japan (were) 15,000 times higher than normal. The authorities ... warned thousands of residents near the site of the accident to stay indoors and to wash off any rain that falls on them.
Which leads me back to the four questions posed at the end of my last post. No-one has yet given me the correct answers, not even the noted bloggers and journalists I was cavorting with last night in Jalan Jaksa.
In our ignorance, are we to be expected to trust the political willingness and technical know how officials who cannot institute and monitor fire regulations in hotels and shopping malls?
Or perhaps we should expect a somewhat arbitrary interpretation of the rules because Indonesia is but a 'Third World country', as described by Direndra Sharma.
........ in the advanced countries your standard is high, you can mend a low-radiation leak. In a Third World country, technologically, financially, economically we are weak, so your standards don't apply to us, and, therefore, whenever somebody's in charge of the radiating facilities, he or she can determine what is the permissible limit. So if it is ten, if it is 20, whatever it is, he or she decides that in the greater safety and efficiency management of the reactor it is necessary to release so much in the water, it is the permissible limit governed by the doctrine, we have violated no law.
So, what do you think of this week's news that Russia is giving, well for a mere $60 million (eh?), a nuclear power plant to North Korea's new allies, Burma. Can they be trusted with it?
