Jakarta –
Indonesia is hoping going nuclear can help it meet soaring energy demand while taming emissions, but it faces serious challenges on its goal of a first small modular reactor by 2032.
Its first experiment with nuclear energy dates to February 1965, when then-President Sukarno inaugurated a test reactor. Sixty years later, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has three research reactors but no nuclear power plants for electricity.
Abundant reserves of polluting coal have so far met the enormous archipelago’s energy needs.
