Cusi: Duterte greenlights BNPP rehab

By Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star), November 12, 2016

BATANGAS CITY, Philippines – President Duterte has said there will be no nuclear plant during his watch, but Energy Secretary Alfondo Cusi said here yesterday that the President had given the go-signal for the rehabilitation of the 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).

“As you all very well know, personally and under the DOE (Department of Energy), I’d like the BNPP to really operate,” Cusi said during the inauguration of the 414-MW San Gabriel and 97-MW Avion natural gas-fired power plants here.

Cusi said he discussed with the President the potential of nuclear energy in meeting the country’s power needs.

“The President has spoken, and after he has spoken, I talked to him and made clarification and seek clearance that I should proceed to work for its implementation and full operation,” he said.

Duterte earlier said no nuclear power plant would run within his six-year term but did not discount the use of nuclear power beyond his administration, which should be studied carefully by Congress and the Filipino people.

But Cusi said he explained the country’s power requirements and the Department of Energy’s responsibility to look at all power sources to ensure adequate supply.

“I gave him assurance that we will not do it recklessly – the security on the use of nuclear and safety in the event of [a calamity]. We are going to follow the strict measures of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency),” he said.

Currently, the DOE is doing all the administrative paperwork and the roadmap for nuclear power, the DOE chief said.

Earlier this week, the DOE tapped Energy for Humanity – a global non-government organization with an ambitious agenda to broaden the climate and energy debate – to inspect and do a feasibility study on the BNPP.

The study, among many done on BNPP, will help in forming a decision on repowering the 30-year-old facility.

“Once and for all, we have to put closure on BNPP, either we use it or convert it,” Cusi said.

Built in the 1980s, the BNPP was supposed to operate commercially in 1986 but was mothballed due to strong opposition from environmental and cause-oriented groups over safety concerns and reports that dictator Ferdinand Marcos received about $80 million in kickbacks from builder Westinghouse.