Solon proposes nuke plant each for Luzviminda

‘FOR RP TO AVERT REPEAT OF CRIPPLING ENERGY CRISIS IN ’86’

To prevent the recurrence of a crippling energy crisis, a lawmaker yesterday said the government should seriously consider putting up nuclear power plants each for Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

“Contrary to old beliefs, nuclear technology is far safer now than it was since it was first developed half a century ago. Today, many countries are shifting to nuclear power generation because it is safer, cheaper and considered to be more environment-friendly than coal-fired power plants,” Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo “Ompong” Plaza said.

Plaza, who is running in the senatorial race in May under the banner of the opposition Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino, noted that the power crisis now being experienced in the country due primarily to drought and the breakdown of some power plants may recur unless the country taps alternative sources of power.

Plaza said the El Niño atmospheric phenomenon, which occurs in a two- or 10-year cycle, will continue to dry up reservoirs in the country that provide hydroelectric power to local industries and homes.

“If we go nuclear, we will not experience the same problems again. We will have an abundant energy source especially if we put up one nuclear power facility in each of the country’s major islands,” he asserted.

Plaza, though, said the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, “the design of which is as obsolete as the 1970’s fashion and trends,” should no longer be revived as new and existing nuclear technology provides no possibility of a meltdown happening, inexpensive power cost, no weapons-grade by-products, and burnt up existing high-level waste as well as old nuclear weapon stockpiles.

He said experts have identified safer nuclear fuel sources, such as Thorium, which promises, among others, a new generation of clean and safe nuclear power plants. Such energy source could satisfy the people’s insatiable thirst for energy, and address the warming of the world’s climate, he added.

“Also, studies have shown that coal plants are even more deadly than nuclear plants. While threats of a reactor meltdown are real for conventional reactors, the fact remains that nuclear power – over the 55 years since it first generated electricity in 1951 – has caused only a fraction of the deaths coal causes every week,” Plaza pointed out.

Citing a previous study by the Earth Policy Institute in Washington D.C. – a non-profit research group founded by influential environmental analyst Lester R. Brown, the lawmaker from Mindanao said coal mining alone kills more than 100,000 people a year. Most of these deaths occur in mines in China and the developing world and it still kills in wealthy countries like the United States.

“Coal deaths don’t just come from mining but from burning it. Air pollution from coal-fired power plants causes 23,600 US deaths per year. It’s also responsible for 554,000 asthma attacks,6,200 cases of chronic bronchitis, and 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks annually,” he said.

On fears of the risk of radioactivity from nuclear power plants, Plaza explained that coal is also radioactive since most of it is laced with traces of a wide range of other elements, including radioactive isotopes such as uranium and thorium, and their decay products, radium and radon. Some of the lighter radioactive particles, such as radon gas, are shed into the atmosphere during combustion, but the majority remain in the waste product – coal ash, he added.

“People can be exposed to coal radiation when ash is stored or transported from the power plant or used in the manufacture of concrete. But more critically, deaths are likely to occur from falling crop yields, more intense flooding and the displacement of coastal communities which are all predicted to ensue from global warming and rising oceans. All these because we continue to burn coal for energy,” Plaza further said.

The opposition senatorial candidate vowed to push for the government to create a nuclear power program for the country once he wins a seat in the upper chamber.

“I will continue working for this until we become energy sufficient. I believe we should now set aside our indifference and embrace the benefits and beauty of nuclear power. It is the only solution to all our energy problems,” he said.

Plaza had earlier expressed willingness to support a proposal by a colleague of his in the House of Representatives, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, for Congress to grant President Arroyo emergency powers to enable her to more effectively and urgently deal with the power crisis if she could present clear-cut measures on how to solve the problem.

“Recognizing that the crisis is worsening, we could give her these powers, but she should brief us in detail on how she would deal with it…since we have to prevent the repeat of anomalies that happened when the government dealt with the power crisis in the 1990s,” Plaza said.  –Daily Tribune