Jakarta – Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (EMR), Arifin Tasrif, who also serves as the Daily Chairman of the National Energy Council (DEN), highlighted the need to speed up the bureaucratic flow to support the development of Nuclear Power Plants (PLTN) in Indonesia.
“We should no longer choose a bureaucratic flow that is too long. Maybe later we will just have a team of experts to review the technology, reliability, and economics. Then the approval mechanism may be in the future like ordinary energy. This is what we need to think about, not to involve too many rules,” he said on Thursday, July 11, during the Third Member Session of the DEN, one of the main issues discussed was the progress of nuclear power plant development as part of the 2060 net zero emissions (NZE) target.
He also underlined the importance of studying other countries that have successfully utilised nuclear energy, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. “We see the mechanism of how they use nuclear energy quickly. If the technology has been proven, other countries can use it, we can adopt it,” Arifin added.
During the session, Arifin also discussed the Draft Government Regulation on National Energy Policy (RPP KEN) which has received approval from factions of Commission VII of the House of Representatives.
“We need to discuss it so that this KEN PP can work. We should not arrange it in a convoluted manner. But it must have a strong legal basis,” Arifin said.
Regarding the anticipation of energy crises and emergencies, Arifin highlighted the high import of fuel oil which reached 32 per cent of fuel consumption of 1.42 million barrels per day. To overcome this, he stressed the importance of reducing the use of fuel through the electric vehicle program and the use of domestic natural resources.
“We must see that this energy utilisation must be able to use as much of our natural resources as possible. For example, in the transportation sector, we have strategic mineral resources that can produce nickel manganese cobalt batteries,” he explained.
In addition, Arifin also emphasised the importance of building a bioavtur industry to achieve energy independence. Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi, who also attended the session, also confirmed the need for domestic industry readiness to produce bioavtur in large quantities.
With these strategic steps, Indonesia is expected to achieve the NZE 2060 target and increase energy independence through bureaucratic efficiency and optimization of domestic natural resources utilisation. (Hartatik)