Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) is scheduled to a sign a ‘nuclear cooperation agreement’ with US firm Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp for the targeted installation of a micro modular reactor (MMR) demonstration project in the Philippines.

Meralco Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ronnie L Aperocho indicated that the signing of the cooperation pact will coincide with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit that will be happening next week in San Francisco, California.

The signing of the deal, according to the Meralco executive, will likely be witnessed by President Marcos as well as the key leaders on the part of the United States.

The American government, through the US Embassy in Manila, has already hinted separately that a government-to-government ‘123 Nuclear Cooperation Agreement” shall also be cemented during this year’s APEC Leaders Meeting.

That is seen as a major covenant that the Philippine government can enter into – that way, the Filipino investors will be given leeway to procure nuclear technologies from the US firms; and that will also enable technology exchange, research and development (R&D) initiatives as well as prospective financing availments when nuclear power projects are finally advanced in the country.

Following the targeted signing of a nuclear cooperation deal, Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan echoed earlier plans of the company to invite Ultra Safe to set up a demonstration facility for MMR, a fourth generation nuclear energy system that can be installed at a configuration of 15 megawatts or less.

“Meralco signed a pre-feasibility agreement, we’re bullish about their technology. One of the areas we thought them about is Meralco procuring a proof of concept plan that they can install, build here in the Philippines, supposedly in an area that is safe so I think that’s part of the discussion with the US recently,” he conveyed.

Pangilinan emphasized that a demonstration project to serve as a proof point on the commercial viability of technology deployment is critical for the Philippines, “because we don’t have experience - in terms of building a modular and certainly in terms of manning and operating a plant so we may need to do that.”

Nevertheless, the Meralco top executive raised apprehension on the lack of atomic regulatory agency “that will eventually oversee and supervise to develop nuclear power in this country.”

Policy and regulation framing for the rebirth of nuclear power development in the Philippines are still ongoing in Congress; but while navigating crossroads, the interested Filipino investors have already started exploring investment options and business models for propounded nuclear power installations – including planned rollout of small modular reactors (SMRs) or even the targeted repowering of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

The updated Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) has been casting the incursion of nuclear in the energy mix starting year 2034 – which is still two administrations away from the current Marcos leadership.

The Department of Energy (DOE), in particular, has been pursuing very calculated steps on the  nuclear renaissance pathway, ensuring first that all the international standards and frameworks set by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on nuclear power development are prudently adhered to before giving go-signal on technology rollout within this sphere.