RP eyes foreign nuclear plants

The Philippines has expressed interest in acquiring two nuclear plants from South Korea, according to Rep. Mark Cojuangco of Pangasinan.

“A letter submitted [to the South Korean government showed that President Gloria Arroyo] is interested [in the two nuclear plants being auctioned off],” Cojuangco said on Wednesday.

“But there is a question of continuity [that would arise from the May 2010 elections]. So I requested some time so facts may be assessed by the next president,” he added.

That balloting will pick President Arroyo’s successor.

The government expressed its intent to secure the whole lot offered on the auction table on the possibility that it would pursue nuclear-power development.

With no concrete plans yet for such development, it asked for the bidding process to be moved up to the third quarter of 2010.

Cojuangco said that there were more than 40 major items, which form parts of the two nuclear plants, being sold by South Korean.

The two facilities on the auction block have a total power generating capacity of over 2,000 megawatts, or just a few hundred megawatts off the entire demand in the Visayas and Mindanao combined.

The nuclear facilities could fetch as much as $5 billion and would take from 50 to 60 months to be set up. A brand new nuclear plant would cost anywhere from $8 billion to $10 billion and would take at least 88 months to get going.

South Korea currently has four nuclear power plants and plans are afoot to construct eight more. The country has no known record of accidents caused by its nuclear plants.

Positive feedback

Cojuangco said that he was confident of a positive feedback from Seoul within the next few days on Manila’s interest in the two nuclear plants.

“The bidding has started but we have a chance because some of the bidders only vied for a few items,” he added.

Cojuangco said that a national policy on nuclear power and public acceptance of nuclear power should be resolved first by the government before it pursues nuclear-power development.

“This [pursuit] should [gain] public acceptance. Dapat maramdaman ng tao na safe ito [The people should be made to feel that nuclear technology is safe],” he added.

Cojuangco added that nuclear power would help the country secure its long-term power supply and bring down power rates, which are said to be among the highest in Asia.

“Kung panakip butas dahil sa kakulangan ng kuryente ngayon, hindi kailangan ito dahil kaya yan ng power barges and other stop-gap measures. Pero mahal na kuryente kapalit ng mga yan, magiging ubod ng mahal ng kuryente [We do not need nuclear power to ease the power shortage today because (deploying) power barges and (adopting) other stop-gap measures are enough to solve the shortage. This solution, however, would drive up the prices of electricity],” he explained. –EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO Reporter, Manila Times