SENATORS on Friday visited the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to see for themselves if the mothballed plant had potentials for revival.
Senators Nancy Binay and Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said they were both open to rehabilitating the BNPP despite the misgivings of Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy.
“The first step is visiting the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to see and discuss if it’s a potential source [of energy],” Binay said. “It’s high time to finally decide what to do with the BNPP. We must remember that we continue to spend for this plant every year although it does not produce electricity.”
Ejercito was more upfront in saying that he wanted the BNPP revived immediately after it receives safety certification to operate as it would lower the price of power and provide more jobs in the manufacturing sector.
“Maybe it only needs certification that it is safe. Either we operate it or we scrap it altogether,” Ejercito told reporters.
“For me, if we can revive the BNPP that would greatly change the game in the power sector. I think this can lower the price of power. In that way, investments would flow in,” he said, adding that the BNPP to date is still the only power plant that can function 24/7.
But Gatchalian said he is still not in favor of reviving BNPP even after inspection.
“We are for nuclear power because we see many advantages [from it] but the BNPP I am not too favor of this,” Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, told reporters in an interview at the plant site in Morong, Bataan.
The senators visited the BNPP and a seminar, led by former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who enumerated the advantages of nuclear power plants over other plants.
Cojuangco, in his presentation, explained that nuclear power plants were the safest type of power plants compared to wind, solar and coal-fired power plants which emitted more carbon dioxide and other poisonous heavy metals.
He said that nuclear power plants also required less capacity but provided cheaper power cost.
He, meanwhile, dispelled reports that the BNPP was not safe, noting that it is tsunami-proof since it is 18 meters above sea level.
The Department of Energy earlier estimated that some P1.865 billion would be needed to revive the mothballed BNPP.
He also cited the controversies that arose in the construction of the BNPP which he described as “a very emotional issue.”