No country will sell fuel to Bataan nuke plant, says research exec

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines–Reviving the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant today or building new nuclear facilities would be the quickest solution to the shortage of electricity most felt in Mindanao and make power rates attractive to investors, according to Department of Energy officials here.

But no country would sell to the Philippines processed uranium and plutonium to fuel these plants because the country’s atomic energy laws and safety regulations are outdated and do not pass world nuclear energy standards, said Dr. Vangeline Parami, acting chief of nuclear regulations, licensing and safeguards of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI).

Parami and DOE officials presented the nuclear option at a forum here.

Mauro Marcelo, assets preservation manager of the National Power Corp., said operating BNPP is “not an option but the only way to go,” now that brownouts in Luzon and blackouts in Mindanao have taken their toll on the economy.

The latest communication regarding BNPP indicates it must be rehabilitated soon to be operational by 2015, Marcelo said.

He said a South Korean power company study commissioned by the government to explore BNPP’s condition indicated the facility is still in good condition and should run smoothly despite its age.

But the nuclear fuel which the Philippines bought for the BNPP in 1984 has been sold, and a fresh supply is only possible if the country subscribes to strict safety regulations governing world nuclear plant generation, the PNRI officials said.

Parami said the 14th Congress failed to pass the Comprehensive Nuclear Regulation Act, which would have set international safety standards for governing nuclear energy.

The existing regulations that guided the BNPP project date back to 1971 when the revised Napocor charter allowed the state firm to operate nuclear power plants, she said.

The PNRI is supervised by the Department of Science and Technology and would not be considered an independent regulatory agency by international treaties and world nuclear inspectors, Parami said.

These new nuclear energy treaties follow a regimented “world safety culture” that covers liabilities and waste disposal, she said.

She said the country at this stage may be hard put assimilating this regimen with its stereotypical “Bahala Na” attitude.

“So we first need to change the societal attitudes towards safety to be convincing to world nuclear experts,” she said.

The recent blackouts have called attention to the fact that the country’s main power grid relies on “aging and overextended state-owned generation plants” which were recently privatized, said Jesus Tamang, DOE planning division chief.

“In reality, most of our plants are aging, and these facilities are not expected to generate their intended capacity for which they were originally designed,” he said.

The nuclear option, however, won’t replace the power output of these old plants had it been employed today, he said.

The government is still eyeing the BNPP and new nuclear plants as options, and has not issued a policy that would allow DOE to pursue it, he said.

He said the DOE has not received any proposal from Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who convinced the Pangasinan provincial board to offer its coastal towns to a South Korean power firm, which needs to relocate two nuclear plant projects meant for North Korea. –Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon