Friday, August 22, 2008 Lawmaker mulls proposing use of nuke power
WITH power crisis in the country looms in the next two to three years, administration Senator Richard Gordon said he is willing to sponsor a law that would allow the construction and use of nuclear power in the Philippines.
“I am making a law to allow it (nuclear power),” Gordon told reporters during the site inspection of the 50 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant built by Formoso Heavy Industries in Barangay Dapdap, Mabalacat, Pampanga.
Gordon stressed that while his primary concern is the environment, he is also alarmed by the looming power shortage that will hit the country in 2010 if there will be no enough power plants to accommodate the rising demand.
“Obviously the environment is my major concern,” Gordon said.
He noted that global use of nuclear power as a source of energy is now being considered, thus it is also time for us to similarly consider it.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes in an earlier interview noted that compared to other possible sources of renewable energy, nuclear is the cheapest since its generation cost is only US$0.03 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
He said solar power amounts to US$0.29/kWh and oil plants cost US$0.07/kWh.
Records of the Department of Energy (DOE) also showed that construction cost for nuclear was placed at US$1.5 million per MW as compared to the investment for a geothermal plant valued at US$2 million per MW and an oil-fired plant which costs around US$1.6 million per MW.
According to Reyes, they are still studying the possibility of reviving the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) but have not made any final decision yet.
“If we consider that option (on nuclear power use), we have to prepare first the feasibility study which would take two years and another five years for rehabilitation. So we won’t see this in the next seven years,” he said.
The energy chief further said the nuclear option would allow the government to generate 620 MW of stable power supply in the next 30 years, but he wanted to make sure first that should the government opt for nuclear source of power the issues and concerns are all properly addressed.
“We will not say go until it is not beneficial and until the concerns on environment (safety and dangers) are resolved,” he declared.
However, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in particular Bataan Bishop Socrates Villegas expressed opposition to the proposed revival of the BNPP.
“Should the nuclear power plant be constructed on the Bataan peninsula, a peninsula lying on a major earthquake fault, be made operational, a nuclear accident will be a tragedy just waiting to happen to plunge the nation into a disaster in the likes of Chernobyl,” he lamented.
Constructed in 1976, the BNPP was built during the term of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in reaction to the energy crisis that hit the country in the 1970s.
The plant was valued at P21.2 billion or US$460 million and an interest rate of P1.06 billion at present. But the total cost of the plant after it was completed in 1984 was US$2.3 billion only. (MSN/Sunnex)
