Nuclear Prospects for Prabowo’s “Green Energy Powerhouse”
As part of Indonesia’s climate commitments made on the sidelines of summits such as the G20 in Brazil and COP 29 in Azerbaijan, President Prabowo has reiterated plans to construct two new nuclear plantsin ASEAN’s most-populated country. Given prominent safety and geographic concerns, Indonesia cautiously maintains two, scaled-down nuclear reactors for research purposes. Prabowo hopes that these facilities will help support the development of actual projects that can form part of Indonesia’s future energy mix, which includes plans to add over 75 gigawatts of renewably derived power to Indonesia’s grid within 15 years and reach net zero emissions by 2060. Indonesia aims to become a “green energy powerhouse”, a goal that will mean not just decarbonization, but also energy security.
The U.S. has also been active in supporting the move towards using nuclear energy in Southeast Asia. Singapore and the U.S. have agreed on a framework for civil nuclear cooperation. On December 12, the Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (“123 Agreement”) between the US and Singapore went into effect. This framework includes the Foundational Infrastructure for the Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Technology (FIRST) program. In Indonesia, state-owned enterprise (SOE) Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) signed an agreement in 2023 with USTDA to conduct a feasibility study for an SMR project in West Kalimantan with potential capacity of 462 MW. As the groundwork for nuclear energy continues to be laid across ASEAN, it is an opportune time for U.S. expertise in the sector to be employed, as advocacy for the technology transcends political boundaries.
