Company says it is evaluating island site about 700 km to the north of capital Jakarta
PT Thorcon Power Indonesia has submitted documents to Indonesia’s nuclear regulator, initiating the licensing process for the construction of what could become the Asian nation’s first commercial nuclear power plant.
The plant would be based on Thorcon’s advanced molten salt reactor (MSR) technology.
The company said a site at Kelasa Island, in Central Bangka, about 700 km of the capital Jakarta, is being investigated to host the plant.
PT Thorcon Power Indonesia (PT TPI) – a subsidiary of Thorcon International, a Singapore-based company – submitted its site evaluation programme and site evaluation management system documents for approval to Indonesia’s Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency last month, a statement said.
“With this submission, PT TPI officially becomes the first nuclear power plant licence applicant in Indonesia’s history, positioning the country for a new era of nuclear energy innovation and development,” Thorcon said.
It added that it is fully committed to addressing any feedback from the regulator during the review process to ensure “a swift and thorough evaluation”.
THorcon akso announced that after the initial plant is successfully deployed, it intends to develop a local manufacturing assembly line for Thorcon reactors in an effort to foster the growth of a new industrial sector in Indonesia.
The submission follows almost two years of pre-licensing consultations. In March 2023, PT TPI and the regulator signed an agreement to officially start a ‘3S’ safety, security and safeguards consultation in preparation for licensing a demonstration 500 MW Thorcon MSR.
The consultation included a review of the masterplan document for the construction of the plant; consultations on reactor design approval; and preparation of technical and non-technical documents related to the reactor prototype and non-fission test plant.
PT TPI’s proposed plant is based on technology developed by the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab in the 1960s.
It will feature the Thorcon 500, a 500 MW MSR power plant comprised of two low-enriched-uranium-fuelled 250 MW reactors in two replaceable, sealed ‘cans’.
At any one time, just one of the cans of each power module is producing thermal power. After eight years of operation, the nuclear module is disconnected, replaced with a new one, and towed to a maintenance centre for can replacement.
MSRs are said to have advantages over more traditional water-cooled plants, including improved safety and higher efficiency.
MSRs use molten fluoride salts as primary coolant, at low pressure. They may operate with a variety of fuels.
Thorcon said much of the interest today in reviving the MSR concept relates to using thorium, a naturally-occurring, slightly radioactive metal. Thorium in itself is not a nuclear fuel, but it can be used to create one.
According to estimates, the Earth's upper crust contains an average of 10.5 parts per million (ppm) of thorium, compared with about 3 ppm of uranium, the usual source of fuel for nuclear reactors.
Background: Indonesia’s Nuclear Future?
The International Energy Agency has said that around one‐quarter of Indonesia’s emissions reductions need to be achieved through technologies that are currently not commercially available in Indonesia – including nuclear.
It said nuclear could contribute 5% to Indonesia’s emissions reductions in 2050.
Indonesia has already signed a number of agreements related to the potential construction of nuclear plants, including floating plants, which are considered particularly suitable for an archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands.
In March 2023 the US awarded a grant to Indonesia for technical assistance towards the deployment of the nation’s first SMR with a potential site already chosen in West Kalimantan, a province on the island of Borneo.
Four Danish companies signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesian state-owned corporations to potentially build a small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear facility on the island of Borneo that can produce one million tonnes of ultra-low emissions ammonia per year.
Russia has said it wants to work with Indonesia on the Southeast Asian nation’s first commercial nuclear power plants with an offer of cooperation that ranges from financing to workforce development and the deployment of floating reactors.
Separately, the Jakarta Globe reported that state-owned electricity company PLN expects nuclear power-generated electricity to enter the grid before 2040.
The newspaper said the government categorises nuclear energy as a form of “new energy”, along with other sources like hydrogen and ammonia, and is banking on them alongside renewables to deliver on its net-zero emissions pledge.
Kelasa Island, in Central Bangka, about 700 km of the capital Jakarta, is being investigated to host the plant. Courtesy Thorcon.
