Half the cost of building Bataan plant needed to run it

The country would have to shell out about half of what it spent for the Bataan nuclear power plant should it decide to revive the shuttered facility.

Pio Benavidez, National Power Corp. (Napocor) senior vice president and vice chairman of the special group on nuclear energy, said that at least $1 billion will be needed to run the country’s only nuclear facility.

“We could spend around $800 million maximum for the operation . . . But we may need $1 billion including the transmission line. We need to build [a] new transmission line since the old ones are already dismantled,” he said.

The government has set aside P100 million to study the facility’s revival. Napocor and Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) are conducting the study.

Benavidez said both parties are now in the process of system evaluation and that Kepco expects to finish the study by October.

“We and the Koreans have identified some that can be used and not. Out of that review, we will look at the results as to what can still be used and cannot be used. The systems that have to be updated are mostly on the electrical side —wiring and cables—particularly the controls, but in terms of the mechanical side it still can be used. We just have to replace the parts to make it operation[al],” he said.

The Marcos administration had spent about $2.1 billion for the construction of the facility. Succeeding governments cough up P40 million a year for its maintenance.

The plant, which was rated with a 630-megawatt capacity, was supposed to operate commercially in 1986 but the Aquino administration mothballed the facility due to extreme opposition from various environmental and cause-oriented groups amid safety concerns and allegations of corruption.

Some lawmakers, however, have been pushing for the facility’s rehabilitation to help secure the country’s energy requirements.  –Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter, Manila Times