Susan Sim, Jakarta – Indonesia's Environment Minister has described talk of a nuclear power plant in the country as premature as yet another local non-government organisation attacked the nuclear energy Bill due to be passed by Parliament tomorrow. Commenting on criticisms that the Bill was designed to legitimise the building of a nuclear power facility despite objections from environmental groups and local residents, Mr Sarwono Kusumaatmadja reaffirmed that "going nuclear will be the government's last option".

Although a feasibility study for a proposed plant site in the Muria peninsula in central Java had been completed, the project "still has a long way to go", The Jakarta Post quoted him as saying yesterday. The government, he added, could not build a plant until it had considered the country's environmental, energy and health laws.

The developer would also have to conduct an environmental impact analysis under the law, said the minister, who is also head of the Environment Impact Management Agency (Bapedal).

Officials of the National Atomic Agency (Batan) had earlier said that a 1,800-megawatt nuclear power facility would start operating in 2003 and that it would be built at the foot of the dormant Muria volcano in central Java's Jepara district.

But Mr Sarwono dismissed their comments as "typical of incumbent officials who have personal interests".

"The nuclear energy controversy is premature since the government has not yet decided whether to go ahead with the plan."

He added: "Just take the word of State Minister of Research and Technology Habibie that going nuclear will be the government's last option."

Analysts told The Straits Times the decision on whether to build a plant would be Dr B. J. Habibie's call.

It was Dr Habibie who introduced the Bill last year. And he was very likely to push for the Muria plant, a Golkar official said, citing the request of the minister to the party's central board to name a top Batan official, Mr Asmedi Suripto, as the party's candidate for the Jepara district elections in May.

If elected, he is expected to lobby for support for the plant among local residents, most of whom had voiced objections. The latest criticism of the plant came on Sunday from the Indonesian Consumers Agency.

According to a Bloomberg report from Darwin, where a uranium conference is being held, a deputy-director of Batan, Dr Azhar Djaloeis, said yesterday that a decision on whether to go ahead with the nuclear plant might come as early as this year.