Nuclear power deemed not a viable option for Mindanao

DESPITE THE NEED to look beyond hydro power as a source of electricity for Mindanao, there is just not enough demand on the island to justify the cost of building a nuclear plant there, the top executive of a major power producer told reporters late last week.

“I could be wrong, but because of the scale, the amount [sic], the size you have to build, it’s very hard to build it in Mindanao,” said Erramon I. Aboitiz, president and chief executive officer of Aboitiz Power Corp., when asked if nuclear power plants would be a viable source of electricity for the power-hungry island.

Leaders of Mindanao business groups, whose members had borne the brunt of hours-long outages during the dry spell that lasted the first half of 2010, said earlier this month that nuclear power should not be discounted among the options to wean the island from overdependence on hydro power.

Mr. Aboitiz noted that the minimum capacity for a nuclear plant is 1,000 megawatts (MW) to 1,500 MW.

“How can [anyone] put it [nuclear power plant] in Mindanao when the whole Mindanao peak load is 1,300 MW?” Mr. Aboitiz asked.

The Web site of the National Grip Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) showed that Mindanao yesterday had a peak load of 1,035 MW against a capacity of 1,200 MW, yielding thin reserves of 165 MW.

The Department of Energy itself has been preparing an Association of Southeast Asian Nations nuclear safety standard study, even as the government is deciding on what to do with the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).

Korean Power Co., which had conducted a feasibility study on reviving the BNPP, placed the total cost of refurbishing that facility at $1 billion.

“You know how much [a] nuclear plant costs right now — $6 million to $8 million a MW, Mr. Aboitiz said.

In comparison, he noted that a coal-fired power plant costs an average of $2 million/MW to build.

He added that it takes about 10 years to train enough people to operate and maintain nuclear power plants.

National Power Corp. officials had said nuclear power may be better accepted in Mindanao, which had seen the urgency of diversifying its sources of electricity amid the drought-induced power shortage last year, than in Luzon where there is a lot of opposition.

Mr. Aboitiz, however, believes nuclear power is better suited to Luzon.

“So, if that’s what the country wants to do…it has to be for long term. The only possible place that you could do that is Luzon,” he said.

NGCP data showed Luzon yesterday having a peak load of 5,449 MW against 7,745-MW in available capacity. — ENJD, Businessworld