Aside from looking for potential supplier for the planned nuclear power plant in the Philippines, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said the government is also eyeing potential manufacturing of nuclear power reactors in the country. It could be recalled that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and his delegation met with two American nuclear power firms – NuScale Power Corp. and Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. – during his recent five-day official working visit to the US. “There are two potential things that could happen,” said Pascual during a press conference with the DTI beat reporters. According to Pascual, one potential that emerged from the discussions is for these firms to become  suppliers (either the small or micro reactors) to the Philippines or build their manufacturing facility in the country for nuclear reactors. “So, there are two potential business models or business arrangements that we are targeting, but that depends on the partnership with our local business people,” he said as he explained that the government is not in the business of running a business. Thus, he added, government officials are pointing the business people to certain directions and giving them incentives so they will decide to invest here and not elsewhere. According to Pascual, NuScale and Ultra Safe are offering two different nuclear power plant technologies. The Oregon-based NuScale is into small modular reactors (SMRs) that can generate 60 megawatts and higher power capacity, but the Seattle-headquartered Ultra Safe is on micro modular reactors (MMRs) using a special material to encase the fuel. While these companies have clients with contracts already in other countries, Pascual said, they have no actual plant operations yet. There is no concrete investment mentioned also, but Pascual said the proponents have rough estimates based on their contracts with other countries. Reports, however, said that NuScale Power disclosed plans to build the SMRs worth up to $7.5 billion in the Philippines. These firms have also mapped out the areas in the country that are considered safe for nuclear power plants but have not really chosen yet a particular province or town that could host their plant if they will proceed to construct here, he said. Based on the claims of the producers during their discussions, the micro modular reactor is not sensitive to geological movements, like earthquakes, making it safe even in areas with volcanic activity. But the small modular reactor is sensitive to volcanic or geological movements of the earth. Pascual also said that there was informal discussion of a Korean nuclear power plant that was constructed at the same time of the construction of mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and still operating 50 years after. Pascual said there were talks of replicating that technology here. The Marcos administration is looking at resolving the long and problematic power supply situation and higher power rates in the country. One solution is to bring back nuclear power plants using new and safer technologies.