Aquino open on nuke power but . . .

PRESIDENT-APPARENT Sen. Benigno Aquino III is keeping his options open to the possibility of tapping nuclear energy to address a worsening power-supply shortage.

But while Aquino indicated his willingness to heed experts asking him to seriously consider using nuclear energy as an alternative source, he closed the door on suggestions to open the aging Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) that his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, ordered mothballed for safety reasons. “We are studying the nuclear options, but most probably [it would] not involve reviving the BNPP,” Aquino said. His reaction was sought after Filipino experts visiting the BNPP at the weekend said his incoming administration should seriously consider the use of nuclear energy, including the opening of the BNPP. They also think the government should make available the needed power supply amid the increasing energy shortage that has been causing hours-long brownouts all over the country.

In previous presidential candidates’ forum that he had attended, Aquino categorically rejected the BNPP option, but signified that he is prepared to explore the nuclear energy alternative.

He pointed out that earlier studies state that the amount of resources that would be needed to revive the BNPP and operate it safely “would cost more than building a new power plant.”

The mothballed BNPP, which critics claimed was overpriced at over $2 billion, was built during the Marcos regime in the 1970s and a cost-benefit study reviewed by Aquino’s team discouraged them from endorsing its revival.

One reason cited was that the BNPP has been lying idle for so long and replacing its parts to make the plant fully compliant with nuclear-safety standards would cost more.

A source in Aquino’s camp, who declined to be identified, also pointed out that earlier studies on the BNPP also found several “documented safety hazards” that may pose a serious threat to residents  in the vicinity of the shuttered power plant in Morong, Bataan.

But she added that Senator Aquino indicated an open mind if there were other safer places where a nuclear plant could be put up with the assurance that this would be done in a scientific method that fully complies with safety standards.

Foreign and Filipino nuclear experts, however, say rehabilitating the BNPP will be cheaper and would require lesser time than constructing a new nuclear power plant.

Rehabilitation of the BNPP would cost $1 billion at an estimated period of four years, while a new nuclear power plant would be $4 billion to $5 billion, and will take seven to 10 years to build.

At the same time, international and local regulatory bodies, such as the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, ensure that rehabilitation or building a new plant would comply with international standards.

On “documented safety hazards,” experts have found no earthquake fault under or near the nuclear power plant.

Local geological experts also said a volcanic danger to the BNPP is a “nonissue.” The BNPP was designed to resist up to 0.4 g (gravity), which means that magnitude 8 earthquakes could affect 0.2 g structures, so with BNPP at 0.4 g, it could withstand stronger earthquakes.

The BNPP has the same design as the nuclear power plants in South Korea which are still in operation.

During the construction of the BNPP in the 1970s, several review and safety missions were conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure the power plant’s safety which “didn’t see any defect” and gave the go signal that the plant “could proceed with core [nuclear fuel] loading.”  –Butch Fernandez / Reporter, Businessmirror