The Duterte administration is urged to rethink its plans to revive the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Bataan Power Plant (BNPP) due to dangers wrapped around its possible operation.
Akabayan party list representative Tom Villarin said that the Fukishima accident in Japan and the Chernobyl disaster in Russia should be a reminder for Filipinos on what’s at stake in reviving the Bataan plant.
“If a rich, scientifically advanced country like Japan had to spend hundreds of millions to avoid a meltdown in Fukushima, imagine what it would cost the Philippines to clean up a BNPP accident,” Villarin said.
“Countries with more advanced technologies like Japan and Germany are already shunning nuclear energy,” he added.
The party list rep added that reviving the BNPP is not worth putting the safety, health and welfare of the Filipino people.
The government earlier said that it would require around $1 billion to rehabilitate the 30-year-old plant.
READ: The cost of building a new nuclear power plant in the Philippines
Villarin said that the funds for rehabilitation should just be used in renewable energy projects.
“The estimated $1 billion required to rehabilitate the BNPP could go instead into pushing for renewables, where even if initial capital layout is high, has proven cheaper in the long run. Costs of turbines, solar panels and batteries have gone down as a result of research and development,” he said.
The spokesperson added that they are afraid that the current administration is on a roll in reviving the ghost of Dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
“We are afraid this administration is on a roll in reviving the ghost of Marcos, first by allowing a hero’s burial for the dictator and now reviving the dictator’s corruption-laden pet project,” he added.
Last Saturday, Energy secretary Alfonso Cusi said that President Rodrigo Duterte approved the rehabilitation of the BNPP.
This is despite saying that the country will not run on nuclear energy under his term.
READ: Bataan nuclear plant rehab gets go signal from Duterte
READ: Duterte rejects idea of nuclear power in PH
I have no problems with utilizing Nuclear Energy as it is one of the most reliable sources of energy however I have no trust in leaving it at the hands of us Filipinos or the Local Government. It should be managed and maintained by a private company and by foreign specialists. We can’t even run airports properly and expect to do the same with a Nuclear Plant?
Also what is with this obsession with the BNPP? We should abandon this mindset of going after hand-me-downs and used/antiques and go for a brand new nuclear new power plant. It’s a 3 decades old design that is not even on par with similar counterparts in India, Pakistan, Armenia, Iran, Argentina and Brazil. Even the bidding process was shady as General Electric originally won the bid but Marcos overruled it and gave it to Westinghouse Electric(Which is now defunct since 1999 due to numerous bad decisions and was sold to Toshiba and renamed WestingHouse Electric Corporation….so much for reliability am I right?). Westinghouse sold the same nuclear technology to other countries for a only a fraction of what it cost in the BNPP. And General Electric? They were the ones responsible for the design of the infamous Fukushima Power Plants that are as old as BNPP.
Better to use that $1 Billion or possibly more for a new nuclear power plant or any other form of energy instead of clinging unto the past.