As a follow-through to Malacanang’s issuance of Executive Order (EO) 116, the Department of Energy (DOE) indicated that it will submit its crafted “nuclear power development plan” to President Rodrigo Duterte next month.
“Our timeline is December -- to submit it (nuclear plan) to the President, and we are hoping that he will approve it before the year ends,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said.
The plan will flesh out the targeted nuclear power projects that will be integrated in the country’s energy mix – including the proposed deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) in various parts of the country; and another component would be on the proposal to revive the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
“For our projects in nuclear, what we want to happen there is to make a national policy – the inclusion of nuclear in our energy mix,” Cusi has specified.
Apart from the nuclear plan to be forwarded to the President’s office in December, the energy chief emphasized that the other concerns they have been sorting out are: the proposed nuclear policy legislation which has been certified as urgent bill in Congress; and the crafting of proposed regulatory framework for nuclear power developments in the country.
For BNPP’s repowering, Duterte previously instructed the energy department to also undertake a study on that proposal; and to assess the cost impact that will have on consumers’ pockets.
But on that particular sphere, Senate Committee on Energy Chairman Sherwin T. Gatchalian sounded off cynicism on claims that electricity rates in the Philippines will go down with the proposed repowering of the mothballed 620-megawatt BNPP project.
“It’s not true that prices are lower because of the layers of technology that shall be integrated into the nuclear power facility to ensure its safe operations,” he claimed.
Gatchalian noted that in Vietnam’s case, that country shelved its planned nuclear power development after determining that the resulting power price will just be comparable with other electric generating facilities -- and yet there’s great degree of risk that they have to manage on the safety aspect of technology deployment.
In the Philippines, the propounded revival of BNPP’s operations had been hurdled by concerns of ‘social acceptance’ in the many years that already passed; and there are also questions on where to source the US$1.0 billion to US$2.0 billion funding for BNPP’s rehabilitation.
The other major issue is which entity shall be designated to operate the plant, since the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) already prohibits state-run National Power Corporation (NPC) from engaging into operation or investments in power generation.
Despite the disparate voices thrown on nuclear power, Cusi is intensifying his appeal to the Filipino people “to open themselves to the idea of nuclear energy” – an imperative social petition even at this early stage because public acceptance of nuclear power is often the toughest hurdle in the deployment of such controversial technology.
The energy chief asserted “many of our countrymen may raise their eyebrows and ask: Why? And to which our response is: Why not?”
Cusi is aware of the fact that nuclear power development takes long lead times, with him pointing out that “considering the potential of safely utilizing nuclear energy for the country’s power needs, it doesn’t mean that nuclear power plants will immediately come out of the woodwork.”
On his assessment, the deployment of modular nuclear power facilities in strategically chosen sites in various parts of the country will likely be feasible by year 2027, which is three years earlier than what was originally planned.
“With the evolution of small modular reactors that are suitable for the off-grid or island areas of the Philippines, the possibility of establishing a modular nuclear power plant in the country might come sooner, even as early as 2027,” Cusi stressed. He previously apprised media that the initial sites of deployment for nuclear SMRs shall be at the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) in Northern Luzon, then in the provinces of Palawan and Sulu.