Yogyakarta, June 18th 2021━In order to welcome the 2021 FISIPOL International Short Course, the Global Engagement Office or GEO FISIPOL UGM held a pre-event in the form of a webinar on Friday (18/6). In collaboration with BRIWork of FISIPOL UGM, this webinar brought a topic that is still in line with the main theme of FISCO GEO 2021─The Dynamics of New and Renewable Energy in the Global South, namely “Nuclear Energy in Indonesia: Potential and Controversy”. Presenting three speakers with different backgrounds, this webinar seeks to present a transdisciplinary point of view in understanding the uses of nuclear energy.
In his material entitled “Public Risk Perception of Nuclear Power Plants”, Fabby Tumiwa, the Executive Director of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), as the first speaker, explained many examples of real cases that gave rise to controversy over the existence of nuclear power plants in the society. Based on his presentation, Fabby said that basically the problems of nuclear power plants are not only related to technology. There are three sources of safety and security risks in nuclear power plant operations, they are human performance, device or equipment failure, and management and supervision.
Adding Fabby;s discussion from another perspective, R. Derajad Sulistyo Widhyharto, S.Sos., M.Sc., a lecturer of the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of UGM, as the second speaker, brought material with the title ‘Measuring Nuclear Energy in Indonesia: Sociological Perspectives’. Sociological perspective is important in seeing the impact of nuclear energy on people’s social life, Derajad said. In his explanation, Derajad presented a table mapping the controversy over nuclear energy as renewable energy in Indonesia from a socio-political perspective.
In order to understand the issue of nuclear energy more comprehensively, Dr. Ir. Alexander Agung, S.T., M.Sc., Head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Physics Engineering of UGM, as the third speaker, delivered material from a technical perspective with the title ‘Potentials and Controversy of Nuclear Energy Development from a Technical Perspective’. Alexander opened his presentation with one important point, that was the reason for the need of nuclear energy. Reinforcing this point, Alexander also explained about the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy itself.
Before reaching the end of the event, the discussion continued with a question and answer session between participants and the speakers. Closing the event, the moderator, Rizka Herdiani, concluded that nuclear energy in Indonesia has many potentials and advantages. However, behind it all, there are still some things that must be considered to avoid things that are not desirable.