December 5, 2025 | 12:15 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Radiological and Radioactive Material Mitigation Task Force (SATGAS Cesium-137) has named a suspect in a radioactive contamination case involving scrap metal at the Cikande industrial estate in Banten Province, west of Jakarta.
The suspect is Lin Jingzhang, a Chinese national who serves as the director of the steel smelting company PT Peter Metal Technology (PMT).
“The Chief of the Special Criminal Directorate (Tipidter) of the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency has named Lin Jingzhang as a suspect,” said Bara Krishna Hasibuan, Head of the Task Force’s Diplomacy and Communication Division, in a written statement on Thursday, December 4, 2025.
According to Bara, the Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights has imposed a travel ban on Lin. Despite the suspect determination, investigators are continuing to pursue other individuals potentially involved in the case.
Lin is charged under Article 98(1) and/or Article 103 of Law No. 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and Management.
Bara noted that police have examined 40 witnesses so far. They include 10 PT PMT employees, one junkyard owner, four waste collectors from the junkyard, 15 suppliers of raw materials to the company, and six managers of the modern industrial estate in Cikande.
Police have also traced the source of the radioactive contamination. Bara stated that PT PMT sourced the scrap metal, which was later found to contain Cesium-137, from domestic suppliers. The steel smelting company has operated in the Cikande industrial area in Serang, Banten.
Investigators suspect that Cesium-137 in the smelted scrap metal turned into airborne fine particles that spread across parts of the industrial estate. The contamination affected several facilities, including the shrimp producer PT Bahari Makmur Sejahtera (BMS).
Police have been tracking PT PMT’s raw material procurement since 2024. That year, the company purchased materials from 66 suppliers based in Jakarta, Banten, Tangerang, and Surabaya.
In 2025, the company sourced supplies from 82 suppliers in Jakarta, Kalimantan, Surabaya, and Sumatra. Over the two-year period, PT PMT acquired a total of 3,448.7 tons of raw materials.
PT PMT began commercial operations in September 2024 and halted production in July 2025. All stainless steel produced by the company was exported to China. Police have since seized several material samples for laboratory analysis.
Bara added that investigators are also reviewing the company’s waste management practices. The remains of industrial waste, particularly used refractories, are suspected to contain hazardous and toxic substances (B3).
These materials were found stored inside the plant’s warehouse and were allegedly never properly treated or transported by licensed third-party waste handlers.
Additionally, PT PMT is suspected of disposing of production waste at a junkyard in Cikande. Investigators uncovered the site during inspections and believe it received contaminated waste from PMT’s operations.
Read: Indonesia: Radioactive-Contaminated Scrap Metals in Cikande Comes from Domestic Suppliers
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