The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
Some senators, notably members of the Senate energy committee, are convinced that the country should use nuclear power in generating the rising electricity needs of the country, but not all of them favor rehabilitating and recommissioning the 32-year-old mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).
Opposed to the BNPP’s reactivation is Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the chamber’s energy committee whose members visited the facility in Morong, Bataan, last Friday, accompanied by officials of the Department of Energy.
Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said he fully endorsed the rehab of the BNPP but Sen. Nancy Binay, while open to the recommissioning of the power plant, said the opinions of experts and stakeholders should be considered, a view shared by Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara.
“We are for nuclear power because we see many advantages from it but I am not in favor of the reactivation of the BNPP,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian said he preferred the construction of a new nuclear-power plant since the cost of setting up a new plant and that of reactivating the BNPP would be almost the same.
“It’s high time to finally decide what to do with the BNPP. We must remember that we continue to spend for this plant every year although it does not produce electricity,” Binay said.
Ejercito said he wanted the BNPP revived immediately after it receives a safety certification to operate, as it would lower the price of electricity and provide more jobs in the manufacturing sector.
“Maybe it only needs a certification that it is safe. Either we operate it or we scrap it altogether,” Ejercito said.
Angara’s office issued a statement saying the senator was open to “the general idea of using nuclear power plants as an additional source of energy for the country” even as he indicated that he was open to the proposal to revive the BNPP.
“Conceding that he does not possess the comprehensive and authoritative knowledge on the matter, Senator Angara wants to hear the view of the experts on the safety and technical issues of nuclear power plants,” Dennis Legaspi, communications director of Angara, said.
Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco made a presentation at the site, telling his audience the advantages of using nuclear power. He said nuclear power was now among the safest and cheapest types of power plants, compared to wind- and solar-power plants that are more expensive, relative to the electricity they produce. Coal-fired power plants, on the other hand, while cheaper, emit carbon dioxide and other poisonous heavy metals. In the long run, nuclear power plants provide cheaper power cost, Cojuangco said.
He also said the design of the BNPP would enable it to withstand a tsunami since it is 18 meters above sea level; the tsunami that hit the Fukushima prefecture in Japan as a result of the nuke plant breakdown there on March 11, 2011, rose 15 meters.
The Department of Energy (DOE) earlier estimated that it would cost P1.865 billion to rehabilitate the mothballed BNPP.
Cojuangco also cited controversies related to the construction of the BNPP, which he described as “a very emotional issue.”
The BNPP was a project of President Ferdinand Marcos and cost the government $2.3 billion (P109. billion under the current exchange rate of P47.571/$1) to build.
In 2007, the Philippines completed the payment of the debt incurred to fund the BNPP’s construction between 1976 and 1984.
The Department of Energy (DOE) said it would shortly launch an intensified information drive on the BNPP and ask stakeholders to look into the benefits of operating a nuclear-power facility.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the government aims to be more transparent in discussing with the public the potentials of the BNPP or of putting up a nuclear-power plant in the country.
He said DOE would conduct extensive studies on reviving the BNPP with the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands (CCPI) President Jose Luis Yulo Jr. said the Slovenian government was willing to send a team to come up with a review of the equipment and safety-compliance procedure of the facility as well as with a program on human resource for the BNPP.
He added that Slovenia could rehabilitate the BNPP at only 15 percent of the cost of a new plant within 18 months.
He also urged the Duterte administration to send delegations to countries with nuclear-power plants to increase the Philippines’s knowledge on the benefits of putting up nuclear energy facility.
Three nuclear power plants—Angra 1 in Brazil, Kori 2 in South Korea, and Krško Nuclear Power Plant in Slovenia, are reference facilities for BNPP as these were all constructed by Westinghouse Electric Company.
In the past year, the Korean Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) conducted feasibility study on BNPP, with findings that the facility could be rehabilitated successfully at a cost of $1 billion (P47.571 billion under the current peso-dollar exchange rate) The study noted that 24 percent or about 6,000 plant systems and equipment of the BNPP needed replacement while the rest would require inspection, overhauling, and testing. It would take about four years to recommission the BNPP, according to the Kepco study.
The Energy department said it was looking at the possibility of reviving the BNPP to ensure stable, sustainable, clean, and cheap energy for the country.
The government could recover the huge cost that went into the dormant BNPP for 30 years within a span of two months if the facility goes online, Cojuangco said in his briefing.
Mauro L. Marcelo Jr., National Power Corp. (Napocor) department manager for asset preservation, said the government has been spending P300 million a year to maintain the facility.
“It is a government asset, so we have to protect it. We have a law that we should preserve it and the law still prevails,” Cojuangco said.
“If the BNPP were to operate on the margins, the P50 million is recoverable in one or two days of operation. So, over the last 30 years, that’s recoverable in two months of operation,” Cojuangco said.