On Monday, June 6, 2022, a collaboration between the Faculty of Engineering UGM and Thorcon Power Indonesia was signed with the main objective of conducting a High Level Safety Assessment (HLSA) study or the High Level Safety Assessment of the TMSR-500 Thorium Power Plant (PLTT). This reactor is a type of power reactor with thorium fuel, the type of Molten Salt Reactor, and a power of 500 MW. In this signing activity, the FT UGM was represented by Prof. Dr. Ir. Selo, S.T., M.T., M. Sc., Ph.D. as the Dean of the UGM Faculty of Engineering together with Bob S. Effendi as the Operations Director of PT ThorCon Power Indonesia.
With its competence in the field of nuclear safety, the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics (DTNTF) together with a Spanish engineering consulting company appointed by Thorcon, namely Empresarios Agrupados Internacional (EAI) will conduct an HLSA study, especially covering aspects of volcanoes and forest fires and haze. The final results of this HLSA study include an executive summary which will be consulted with the Nuclear Energy Supervisory Agency (BAPETEN) to be submitted to policy makers. It is hoped that with this HLSA study, the government will obtain a comprehensive overview of the TMSR safety analysis and issue the necessary policies to realize the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Indonesia.
In his remarks, the Dean of FT UGM welcomed the close collaboration between Thorcon and FT UGM and appreciated the Nuclear Engineering lecturers who had initiated this activity for a long time. In addition, the Dean of FT UGM also offered Thorcon to fill one corner of the Smart and Green Learning Center (SGLC) building with Thorcon Corner. It is hoped that with this Thorcon Corner, students are inspired and get to know the realities of the industry they are going to work in.
In this event, Thorcon also submitted a mockup of the TMSR-500 which was then placed in DTNTF and welcomed the offer to establish Thorcon Corner.
Bob S. Effendi in his speech said that from the beginning DTNTF had been collaborating with the development of nuclear power plants in Indonesia by conducting discussions on the use of thorium, so it was called the Thorium Working Group which had been started since 2014. The DTNTF lecturers involved were Dr. Yudi Utomo Imardjoko, Dr.-Ing. Kusnanto, and Dr. Andang Widi Harto. In addition, Bob S. Effendi also said that Thorcon is confident to be the energy provider to support the achievement of Net Zero Emission (NZE) in 2060.
