Aquino scraps bid to re-open nuke plant

The government has scrapped moves to revive the mothballed 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant but nuclear energy remains an option, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said Tuesday.

“It’s a policy decision of the President [Benigno Aquino III] that we are not going to open the Bataan nuclear power plant. Mainly because, in the opinion of the President, there are too much social complexities that have been caused by that,” Almendras told reporters during a briefing at the Energy Department building in Taguig City.

“Secondly, there is this issue on the safety considering the fault line and all,” Almendras said.

Former President Corazon Aquino, the mother of President Aquino, mothballed the $2.3-billion nuclear facility in 1986 due to safety concerns.

Korea Electric Power Corp. submitted a study on the possibility of re-powering the nuclear power plant at an estimated cost of $1 billion.

Almendras said the government was looking for the “best possible use” of the Bataan facility, including sale of asset or converting it into other fuel sources.

He said the Energy Department was open to nuclear power as part of the country’s future power generation mix because of its lower generation price.

“We are not closed to it. We are evaluating it. We have been told that there have been significant technological advancements relative to safety,” he said.

He said the Philippines must face to the reality that fossil fuel “is not going to be available forever and the price is going to continue to be on the uptrend.”

“One of the biggest problems of energy pricing in the Philippines today is actually generation cost. You have to consider the generation mix. If we can tweak around the generation mix, and there is an opportunity to bring down prices within acceptable safety standards and social considerations, then may be it’s worth looking at,” Almendras said. –Alena Mae S. Flores, Manila Standard Today