Russia has extended help to the Philippines in developing nuclear power facilities and determining the fate of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp. (Rosatom) deputy director general Nikolay Spasskiy has signed a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) in front of President Rodrigo Duterte and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday.
“It’s a memo of cooperation covering BNPP audit and assessment and feasibility study for a small modular reactor,” Cusi said.
Under the said cooperation, Philippines and Russia will work together in auditing and assess the BNPP’s technical condition, including the decision on its rehabilitation.
The two countries will also cooperate on nuclear infrastructure studies towards national energy policy development and nuclear energy program implementation in the Philippines.
Adding to that are feasibility studies on the construction of small modular nuclear power plants – onshore or offshore – but not limited to analysis of technical, commercial, financial and legal aspects in the Philippines.
This cooperation is part of the government’s attempt to develop a variety of applications of nuclear energy that are within the power generation policies of the country, Cusi said.
“Through this MOC, we can tap the significant experience of Russia in harnessing nuclear energy and the emerging technologies related to it for peaceful purposes that is safe and secure,” he added.
The undertakings in the MOC would support the country in establishing a national position and a nuclear energy policy that could lead to a nuclear energy program.
The MOC will run for five years and is renewable for the same period. Not unless one party notifies the other in writing through diplomatic channels of its intention to terminate or suspend the MOC.
