Jakarta – The Indonesian government is planning to build a nuclear power plant by the year 2015 at the latest to meet the country's mounting power needs.

Mr Yusri Henri, head of the Development of Nuclear Power Supervisory Agency, was quoted by local media here yesterday as saying that a nuclear power plant would generate cheap electricity although its development would be expensive and the risks would be high.

"As long as we follow the procedures properly to maintain the nuclear power plant, it will remain safe," he said.

The country has built a nuclear power laboratory in Jakarta.

The official was quoted as saying that there had only been one registered accident in the reactor before, which proves that this country is able to manage a nuclear power plant relatively safely.

In 1997, the country's national atomic energy agency, Batan, recommended that a nuclear power plant be built within two years but the plan never materialised.

According to reports, the then Batan chief Iyos Subki said the proposal for the nuclear plant was based on Indonesia's future energy needs.

"It is only a matter of time before we build such a plant. We cannot avoid going nuclear because the demand for energy is growing in Indonesia," he said in an interview.

He said research by Batan showed that by 2015 Indonesia was projected to require 35,000 additional megawatts of power to provide industries and homes in Java and Bali with electricity.

The planned nuclear plant on the slopes of the dormant Muria volcano on the northern coast of densely populated Central Java will provide around 7,000 MW of power.