OREANDA-NEWS. The plenary session of the 7th Nuclear Power Asia 2016 conference, which took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 20-21, brought together the leaders of the Asian nuclear power industry. It included Dr. Djarot Wisnubroto, Chairman of the National Nuclear Energy of Indonesia (BATAN), Dr. Mohd Zamzam Bin Jaafar, CEO of Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation, Lakshitha Jawardhana, Chairman of Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board (SLAEB), and Egor Simonov, Director of ROSATOM Asia, a regional office of ROSATOM Corporation for Southeast Asia.

Session participants concurred that in order to keep the current industrial growth Asian countries, particularly ASEAN countries, need to diversify their energy mix and consider nuclear power plants as an economically and environmentally viable source of baseboard electricity generation. “Among prerequisites of the regional nuclear industry development is a contradiction: on the one hand, electricity demand is growing significantly, on the other hand, governments keep introducing tougher emissions standards”, said Egor Simonov. He gave the example of Indonesia, which aims at reducing CO2 Emission by 30% by 2030 while adding 35 GW generation as early as 2019.

He also noted that nuclear energy is able not only to strengthen the Asian energy security, but may actually help the region’s nations to reach a new level of development. “The construction of nuclear power plants can give a boost for the whole branches of economy – the nuclear industry contributes to the creation of new jobs, prosperity of engineering, R&D and education”, the speaker noted.
“According to the recent public opinion surveys in Indonesia, about 75% of population support the development of nuclear industry in the country. In this regard, the peaceful atom has the chances to be a part of the ambitious Indonesian program to commission new generation capacities”, concluded Simonov.

Talking about ROSATOM’s presence in Asia, the speaker said that the Russian design nuclear power reactors are operated in China and India, with the construction of more reactors underway. Besides, nuclear new build projects are implemented in Vietnam and Bangladesh. ROSATOM provides a comprehensive support to these newcomer countries in the development of the national nuclear infrastructure. The company also supplies nuclear fuel cycle products and services in Japan and South Korea.

A presentation on the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR) and their prospects in Asia was made  by Nikolay Kodochigov, Chief Designer of HTGR at OKBM Afrikantov, a ROSATOM Corporation subsidiary. Furthermore, the Russian speakers also shared ROSATOM’s experience in the areas of nuclear technologies public acceptance and human resource development in nuclear industry.

Nuclear Power Asia conference is platform to discuss the latest challenges, trends, and achievements in the Asian nuclear industry. The event is annually attended by more than 300 participants from nuclear energy authorities, energy commissions, NEPIOs, international developers & operators, technology suppliers, and academic society.