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Indonesia has signed a memorandum of understanding with ThorConto develop thorium molten salt reactors. The resulting Indonesia Thorium Consortium has three partners from the Indonesian side.
Signing the memorandum of understanding. Rachmad Hardadi, Refinery Director, Pertamina; Nicke Widyawati, Director, PLN; Lars Jorgensen, CEO, ThorCon; Yudiutomo Imardjoko, CEO, INUKI.
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This is the final piece of regulation in order to have a clear path toward commercialization of the MSR, and hopefully Indonesia will be the first country to operate an MSR NPP.
Indonesia has signed a memorandum of understanding with ThorCon to develop thorium molten salt reactors. The resulting Indonesia Thorium Consortium has three partners from the Indonesian side.
The memorandum was signed in Washington DC between ThorCon three Indonesian companies: PT Industry Nuklir Indonesia (INUKI) is the state-owned nuclear fuel processing company. PT PLN is the state-owned power generation company. PT Pertamina is the state oil and gas giant which is now looking at nuclear and other forms of energy. |
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Together these companies have formed the Indonesia Thorium Consortium whose purpose is the development and implementation of thorium molten salt reactors based on the ThorCon design.The first plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2021. INUKI with its license to import nuclear fuel will provide the thorium and uranium as required. Pertamina will provide its expertise in moving large scale power projects from cradle to maturity and help navigate the governmental bureaucracy. PLN will provide its expertise regarding siting the plant and connecting with the grid. Importantly, PLN will buy the power generated.
Indonesia is the world’s leading producer of tin, and part of the waste from tin mining is monazite, containing thorium. ‘Indonesia has an abundance of monazite which could last for the next 1000 years, securing Indonesia’s energy supply if the thorium is used as a nuclear fuel’, says Dr. Yudiutomo Imardjoko, CEO of the Indonesian Nuclear Company (INUKI). Why did Indonesia choose the molten salt reactor amongst the different thorium reactor types? There are three features Mr. Imardjoko highlights: passive safety, modularity and cost compared to coal. ‘We know that we have to go with a generation IV design which has a passive safety system build into the design. It has to be modular, and compete with coal in term of its economics. So the choice is either a HTGR type reactor with a Triso Fuel or The Molten Salt reactor. The HTGR is a complex design and the Triso fuel is difficult to manufacture. I don’t think we have the capability to manufacture the Triso fuel which means we have to import it. The MSR has a simple design, which I think is the simplest design among all the Gen IV reactors. Its fuel is liquid which makes it easy to manufacture and the simplicity of the design makes it very economical to build and to operate - at least on paper the economics could compete with coal’ says Mr. Imardjoko. Indonesia is aiming for thorium energy to become a significant part of the country’s energy mix, thus contributing its share in the efforts against climate change. ‘We are not planning to just to build one or two reactors. We are aiming for at least a 20% share of the energy mix by 2050, otherwise we are not addressing the climate change correctly’, says Mr. Imardjoko. In their choice of a design amongst the MSRs currently under development, time to market was a key determinant. ‘We have reviewed all the MSR designs that are currently being developed and we think that the ThorCon design has the right formula to be able to be deploy in the 4 – 5 year time frame’, sums Mr. Imardjoko. ‘It is an elegant design which allows for construction using ship yard techniques. This results in great savings in cost and time. It is a very practical and realistic design allowing for ease of operation and maintenance. The plant is very safe with completely passive shut-down capability. ThorCon just takes the proven ORNL design and scales it up without any new research’ he continues. Mr. Imardjoko is impressed with the ‘ship yard’ manufacturing concept ThorCon plans to use. ‘ThorCon estimates that 1000 MW can be manufactured in a year and within 5 years of operation, they believe it can be scaled up to 5 GW per year. If this is true, it will solve Indonesia’s energy crisis. We need to increase the power generation fast to keep up with the rest of the Asean countries which already are above 90% electrification’, he sums the urgency of increased energy supply in Indonesia. ThorCon's owner Martingale’s expertise in shipbuilding design enables low-cost, high-precision, scalable manufacturing by shipyards. Mass production of nuclear power plants is possible with ThorCon technology. See a detailed explanation of the ThorCon technology in the video below: |
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A Thorium Molten Salt System That Can Be Built Now.
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Nuclear has been defined as the least preferable clean energy option for Indonesia in the National Energy Policy. However, the government has now realized it cannot meet its energy mix goals with renewable energy sources only. ‘In order to meet the 23% requirement of renewable energy in the energy mix by 2025 as mandate by law, the government has realized that this cannot happen without the use of nuclear. As a result, The Energy Ministry has agreed that nuclear has to take part by 2025.
Changes in legislation and regulation are needed. ‘According to current regulation, only a proven reactor type can be operated commercially as a NPP. But that does not mean that an unproven/unlicensed type of reactor such as the MSR cannot be licensed in Indonesia. The process needs to go through an experimental phase with the supervision of The Indonesian Nuclear Agency (BATAN). We are already in talks with the Indonesia Nuclear Licensing Agency (BAPETEN) and they are very helpful and willing to cooperate with us. BAPETEN needs to come up with a regulation on how to license an unproven reactor. They have promised to initiate discussions by early next year, which will involve BATAN and The Thorium Consortium. This is the final piece of regulation in order to have a clear path toward commercialization of the MSR, and hopefully Indonesia will be the first country to operate an MSR NPP’, explains Mr. Imardjoko. 
Signing the memorandum of understanding. Rachmad Hardadi, Refinery Director, Pertamina; Nicke Widyawati, Director, PLN; Lars Jorgensen, CEO, ThorCon; Yudiutomo Imardjoko, CEO, INUKI.
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