A nuclear power plant may be one of the cheapest sources of electricity that a country like the Philippines should operate. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan generate electricity from nuclear power plants, along with the United States and 27 other nations in Europe and East Asia.
The Philippines built but never operated a nuclear power station in Bataan province. The late President Corazon Aquino mothballed the 620-megawatt Bataan plant on safety concerns following the scare that followed the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in April 1986.
Operating a nuclear power plant in the Philippines, however, remains an option, with the Duterte administration either open to reviving the Bataan plant or building a smaller one to broaden the country’s power mix. Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi himself seems to favor the operation of this type of power plant.
Cusi, accompanying President Rodrigo Duterte in a state visit to South Korea last week, agreed with officials of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to study the possibility of putting up a 100-megawatt modular nuclear reactor at the free port run by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority in Sta. Ana, Cagayan province.
The agreement is purely exploratory in nature, although Cusi seems to be pushing for nuclear energy as a part of the country’s power mix. The energy secretary earlier also advocated for the use of a small-scale nuclear capacity.
But the initial agreement with the Korean company may be premature. The Department of Energy under the helm of Cusi has submitted a proposed nuclear policy to Malacañang, which so far has not given its go-signal. Unless President Duterte supports a nuclear energy policy in clear terms, the agreement with the Korean company won’t hold water.
The government perhaps should pursue other energy options because of the controversy usually generated by nuclear power plants. It can continue to tap other renewable energy sources that can provide the same amount of electricity volume to power homes and factories. Building another nuclear power plant is also a divisive issue, like what the Philippines experienced in the years leading to the completion of the Bataan facility in the mid ’80s.