The government sought China’s help to assess the potential of reviving Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said Tuesday.
Cusi told reporters that after talking to China’s ambassador to the Philippines, a Chinese company expressed interest to study the mothballed 620-megawatt BNPP in Morong, Bataan. “In fact, they are interested even to operate it,” Cusi said.
Cusi said that aside from China, other countries were also interested in the Bataan nuclear facility which had not operated over the past 30 years.
BNPP was built by American company Westinghouse Electric between 1976 and 1984 at a cost of $2.3 billion.
The administration of former President Corazon Aquino mothballed BNPP in the late 1980s on concerns it was built near a fault line. The facility’s nuclear reactor remains intact.
Cusi said putting up a new nuclear facility would likely need an incentive scheme.
“If nuclear, it cannot be merchant so we might have to put something for a new project just like we did with the renewables such as priority dispatch,” he said.
The Philippines expressed openness over the use of nuclear energy in power generation, but the government has yet to issue a national policy on the technology.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier gave Cusi the go signal to study nuclear as an option for the country’s long-term power requirements.
Cusi issued Department Order 2016-10-0013 forming the Nuclear Energy Program Implementing Organization.
The NEPIO will produce a comprehensive study and prepare a national infrastructure for the first nuclear power plant.
Cusi earlier said once repowering BNPP proved to be not feasible, the Philippines could look into using modular or smaller sized nuclear facilities.
“We can be cautious. We can move with caution so we can start with modular. We have to listen to the experts,” he said.
Energy Undersecretary Jesus Posadas said the government would apply international laws in looking at possible sites for nuclear facilities such the proposed modular nuclear energy plant in Sulu province.
The Philippines, together with other Asean member states, tackled the security of nuclear sources during the 7th Nuclear Energy Cooperation and Sub-Sector Network three-day meeting last week.
“The Philippines being a latecomer to the nuclear, in a sense that we did not operate our nuclear, we can implement all of the safeguards, all improvements that has happened in the years passed. Also in terms of technology, which has undergone such huge steps, we can leapfrog to the latest version,” Posadas said.
“The Philippine government has imposed, self imposed compliance to the International Atomic Energy Agency. We have to have a national position first but we are still moving towards that,” Posadas said.
The local government of Sulu expressed willingness to host a modular nuclear energy facility of less than 100 MW in capacity. “Discussions on nuclear energy as well as radioactive sources tend to attract issues on security. We are cognizant of this and must admit that this issue cannot be discounted as people and the environment must always be protected,” Posadas said earlier.