Prioritizing Safety Aspects: Advanced Multi-Criteria Decision-Making for Nuclear Power Plant Site Selection in Indonesia

Indonesia's energy needs must be met by clean and sustainable energy sources, such as nuclear energy, to achieve the net-zero emission target. A critical issue after the Indonesian government decided to use nuclear energy is the decision-making problem of selecting the most suitable location for a nuclear power plant. This study integrates two methods of multi-criteria decision-making. First, the Fuzzy-Analytical Hierarchy Process and second the Fuzzy-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. Both methods are used to determine the most suitable nuclear power plant location according to safety aspects. The first method is used to determine the priority order of criteria, while the second method is used for ranking alternative locations. Eleven aspects related to safety based on references validated by ten Indonesian nuclear experts through focus group discussion activities are geology, geotechnics, seismology, population density, meteorology, topography, hydrology, cooling water, land use, proximity to hazardous, proximity to wetland, evacuation route, and environment. Meanwhile, the East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan provinces are the two prospective nuclear power plant locations. The analysis results using the first method show that the order of the highest priority criteria for the safety aspect are geology, geotechnics, seismology, population density, and environment. Meanwhile, the second method recommends the West Kalimantan provinces as the most suitable nuclear power plant location, with a preference value of 0.5675. The results of integrating two methods for determining the most suitable site for a nuclear power plant from a safety aspect show that advanced multi-criteria decision-making efficiently and accurately reduces decision bias based on expert opinion.