Bill Gates Considering Plan to Built Nuclear Reactor in Indonesia

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Terra Power was considering a request to build a nuclear reactor of the latest generation in Indonesia, an official said.

President of PT Batan Tekno Yudiutomo Imardjoko said he had proposed to Terra Power, which is owned by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the plan to build the nuclear reactor in cooperation with PT Batan Tekno.

Terra Power is also studying plan to build a nuclear reactor of the latest generation in China, Yudiutomo said at a seminar on Indonesia Green Infrastructure Summit 2014, here on Tuesday.

The fourth generation nuclear reactor uses the technology of Traveling Wave Reactor with that capacity to generate 500 megawatts of power per reactor.

The reactor is safe and fuel efficient, requiring replacement every 60 years, Yudiutomo said.

In the event of damage , the reactor has a cooling system to reduce the impact of the disaster, he said.

"The reactor would automatically becomes cool," he added.

If Bill Gates or Terra Power decides to build the facility , the likeliest place is Kalimantan, where demand for power is growing faster especially with many plans to build mineral smelters , he said.

In addition Kalimantan is safer from natural disaster such as earthquake.

"I would choose Kalimantan. Risk of quake is relatively small and the many plans to build smelters there would need larger supply of electricity," he said.

However, on factors of license and regulation Terra Power may choose China over Indonesia, Yudiutomo said.

"Now it is up to us to make it easy in license and regulation," he said. (WDY)