Ex-lawmaker issues stay on nuke plant revival

AN advocate for the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) said on Monday that he was not abandoning his cause despite issuing a self-imposed moratorium on it, amid a nuclear power plant’s explosions in disaster-hit Japan and the opposition of some members of the House of Representatives.

Former Rep. Mark Cojuangco of the Fifth District of Pangasinan said that though the country’s nuclear power industry should be reexamined to address safety concerns, that doesn’t mean the plan to revive the power plant should be junked since Japan’s blast-hit Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is still holding up.

“I am issuing a temporary moratorium on my advocacy for [the revival of the] BNPP until such time that enough information and analysis become available,” Cojuangco said during a press conference.

“I also advised my wife also to have [her own] moratorium” on the subject, he added, referring to Rep. Kimi Cojuangco’s House Bill 1291—the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Act of 2010—which she said would address the country’s electricity-generating capacity shortfall by 2012 and the worsening problem of global warming because of carbon emissions.

Under the measure, the National Power Corp. is mandated and authorized to undertake the BNPP’s immediate validation under the supervision of the Department of Energy.

In the event that what happened at the Japanese power plant may be repeated here, the former lawmaker suggested that the assumptions of safety in such facilities should be adjusted.

“What happened in Fukushima [would] be the benchmark of future nuclear plant improvement,” Mark said, adding that the plant “is constructed to withstand a tsunami 22 meters in height, as such, [it] should serve as a model.”

“Should the containment [in Fukushima] fail, I will withdraw my advocacy. But containment has not failed yet,” he added.

According to him, the power plant’s revival could peg the cost of electricity to P2.50 for every kilowatt hour, which is cheaper than the P60 for every kilowatt hour value of alternative sources like solar and wind energy.

“We [have] yet to have the technology that is economically viable. Once that time comes, by all means let us use [these alternative sources of energy],” Mark said.

Failed to sway
But his arguments for the controversial power plant’s revival failed to sway some members of the Lower Chamber on Monday.

Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada 3rd called for the immediate scrapping of the proposal.

“Let us now weigh all the benefits against the very risks of having nuclear power given the geographic realities of the Philippines,” Tañada told reporters.

“If it were all up to me, I can outrightly say, ‘not in my backyard,’” he added.

The lawmaker, who represents the fourth district of Quezon, underscored that the country lies in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

“If Japan, a developed country with the best possible technology and safety precautions installed to handle nuclear power is now having problems, I couldn’t imagine how we can possibly handle potential nuclear emergencies,” said Tañada.

“Aside from being prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, our culture of safety and disaster preparedness leaves much to be desired,” he added.

Rep. Roilo Golez of Parañaque City said that the Fukushima crisis should be the deciding point for the government to kill the plan.

“In the light of the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis, it is necessary to [shelve] the proposal to reactivate the [power plant],” Golez told reporters.

“Metro Manila and many vital economic assets like Subic [in Zambales], Clark [in Pampanga] and parts of Calabarzon [Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon] are within the dangerous 100-km radius around BNPP. That area would be devastated or paralyzed in a suspected meltdown,” he said.

Rep. Angelo Palmones of Alyansa ng mga Grupo ng Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan party-list said that “calls to suspend studies to revive the Philippine nuclear power program lack science.”

According to the lawmaker, the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and 10-meter tsunami that struck Japan on Friday “must [serve to] push [for] more research [in] increasing containment and safety measures.”

Representatives Alfredo Benitez of the Third District of Negros Occidental and Irwin Tieng of Buhay Hayaang Yumabong party-list said that the House Committee on Energy has no other alternative but to continue to deliberate on Cojuangco’s bill.

They admitted, though, that the devastation caused by the Japan earthquake and the explosion of a nuclear power plant there would serve as a strong argument against the power plant’s revival. –LLANESCA T. PANTI REPORTER WITH REPORT FROM RUBEN D. MANAHAN 4TH, Manila Times

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