IT is a minor aspiration but one that is noted surprisingly often in discussions about nuclear energy, particularly when people from the Department of Energy or the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute are involved: the Philippines could become the first nuclear-powered nation in Southeast Asia if it can meet its goal of harnessing the mighty atom sometime around the year 2032. Recent developments, however, suggest that neighboring Indonesia might snatch away that particular boast.

To be sure, developing nuclear power is still a hopelessly impractical application of optimism for either country, but Indonesia is tilting at this particular windmill with a great deal more energy than the Philippines is at the moment. Recently, the government included nuclear energy in its 2040 New Renewable Energy Strategy and moved up the target date for the commercial operation of nuclear power plants — plants, as in more than one — to 2032 from 2039, which was the target in the previous national energy plan.