The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Department of Energy (DOE), aggressively pursuing the updated Philippine Energy Plan that aims to increase the country’s power supply and source a substantial portion of it from nuclear energy, has taken the first concrete step toward possible nuclearization by holding talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi sought the help of the IAEA in forming a body similar to the Nuclear Energy Program Implementation Organization (Nepio) that will guide the government in deciding “whether or not to go nuclear.”
Cusi said the government is initially “encouraged to initiate the activation of a local focused body, akin to Nepio that will help us get all the necessary information to guide us in deciding whether to go nuclear or not. The experts and all our speakers suggest that there is, indeed, much work to be done.”
Cusi mentioned this in his keynote speech at the opening of the International Conference on the Prospects for Nuclear Power in the Asia-Pacific Region. He said making the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), once recommissioned and operational, could add 623 megawatts (MW) of power or 10 percent of the present power requirements of the Luzon grid.
Under the PEP, the government aims to increase by 60 percent the country’s power supply to reach 25,800 MW by 2030, from the current installed capacity of 16,250 MW. The plan aims to source a total of 2,400 MW from nuclear energy until 2035.
“To meet this requirement, we have to weigh all our options, with emphasis not just on meeting capacity requirements, but sustainability and environmental obligations as well,” Cusi said.
“We need to have our own Energy Technology Roadmap to guide us in the selection, adoption and innovation of technologies for our use.” Cusi said the nuclear plan will “require us to look at all current and emerging technologies and the many factors needed to make best use of them.”
He said that, given its known characteristics, nuclear technology can be a viable choice for the country as “the nuclear infrastructure and system is more cost-efficient in the long-term.”
Cusi also cited reports and special studies showing that the operation of nuclear plants has become safer, more predictable, and more dependable, with a useful life of more than 60 years.
“With all the new findings, technological advancements and successful experiences of countries around the world, nuclear energy holds much promise for our national interest, especially in light of our collective quest to implement our long-term energy plans,” he noted.
The BNPP was supposed to be the first of two nuclear plants to be built in Bataan.
At the time it was being built, it was bruited about as the first nuclear power plant in Southeast Asia, and the vaunted solution to the 1973 oil crisis that had adversely affected the global economy, including the Philippines.
But the project was scuttled in 1986, the wake of the Chernobyl disaster in the then-Soviet Union. There was a clamor for its reopening during the power crisis in the 1990s and the skyrocketing oil prices in 2007 but the clamor was effectively silenced by a resurgence of the anti-nuke sentiments that caused its mothballing in 1986.
Cusi was quoted as saying he inspected the BNPP on Thursday and found that the basic structure was “still good.” He cited a similar case in Tennessee, US, where a nuclear-power plant that had the same configuration as the BNPP was mothballed in 1985 and will start operating this year.
The Philippines is currently lagging behind its neighbors in Southeast Asia in the pursuit of a nuclear-power program.
Cusi lamented that while fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are aggressively pushing for nuclear-power programs, the Philippines has yet to effectively banish its people’s negative perception on nuclear energy.
Cusi said Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are all set to launch their own nuclear power facilities or programs.
Vietnam, for instance, has eight nuclear-power plants in the pipeline since it passed its own Atomic Energy Act in 2008; Indonesia’s National Atomic Energy Agency eyes its four large reactors to go online by 2025; Malaysia targets the commissioning of its first nuclear power plant by 2026; and Thailand also aims to develop a nuclear-power program within the context of its national agenda.
“In line with President Duterte’s vision, an essential component of the country’s energy plan involves a long-term initiative of developing a sustainable, diversified and balanced energy mix that is responsive and supportive of the country’s growing economy,” Cusi said.
As of end-2015, the country’s power generation mix is 45 percent coal, 25 percent renewable, 25 percent natural gas, and 7.0 percent oil.
The IAEA has been developing the Nepio program for its possible adoption by emerging markets in their nuclear-power plant project.
It was in its 2007 summit meeting that Asean first announced its member nations’ plans to include nuclear power in their mix of energies to sustain fast development.
Commenting on the “reemergence of interest” on the BNPP, former Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada foresees “a long process involving networking, planning, preparation and consultation.”
Already, certain sectors have expressed misgivings over the reactivation of the BNPP.
Henry V. Schumacher, senior advocacy adviser at the European Chamber of Commerce (ECCP), for one, said: “Nuclear requires a lot of money. The investment is very high and the risk is very high. So why go nuclear? If we had no other option I would think nuclear. But the Philippines definitely has other options. Also, if you look at the prices of renewable energy they are doing down. Soon, the Philippines will have affordable energy,” he said
The BNPP was already “almost complete” in 1984 and 100 percent of its equipment and systems had passed the one-year long Hot Functional Tests that were conducted then. It was also during these tests that the plant was able to generate 5 MW of electricity, using the heat from the Nuclear Steam Supply System but without nuclear fuel.
The BNPP is a Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant, the most popular reactor design in the industry. It took 10 years to construct the nuke plant and has been “under preservation” since 1986 at a cost of P40 to P50 million a year.