Bataan nuclear plant 'solution to power crisis'

PAGADIAN CITY -- Reopening the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is “our best option” for solving the current power crisis, said senatorial candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

Marcos said the BNPP offers “the quickest way to add a new source of power” because it can be made operational within a year or even less.

Click here for Election 2010 updates

The mothballed power facility is estimated to be capable of producing at least 600 megawatts of electricity which is was, at one time, the size of supply deficiency in Luzon last month.

Marcos said during a tour in the facility that according to the experts, the BNPP “is still in very good condition.”

He also assured that the nuclear technology used in the BNPP “is much newer than the one used in Chernobyl,” debunking fears widely circulated that it will be unsafe to operate the facility.

He added that its design “is just like that in Korea which saw no hitches for the past 20 years.”

“This could be why the Korean government is planning to build more nuclear plants,” he observes.

But Marcos said the commissioning of the BNPP must be carefully examined in order to address other major attendant concerns.

At present, there is renewed discussion about the nuclear option in developing the country’s power generation capability.

Energy experts have lamented that the “nuclear scare” which developed among Filipinos is hindering a decision on the matter based on scientific and technical reasons.

Marcos himself notes that the BNPP was mothballed “purely for political reasons.”

If decided to be operated, the next challenge is sourcing nuclear fuel.

Marcos said the fuel stock in BNPP was sold during the time of former president Fidel Ramos.