MANILA, MARCH 21, 2011 (STAR) By Marvin Sy - Three senators argued against an outright rejection of a nuclear power program in the country because of the damage to the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who filed a bill calling for a revisiting of the nuclear power option, said that the statements issued against the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) were alarmist and "borne out of superstition and ignorance."
Santiago said the BNPP was a more modern facility compared to the Fukushima plant, which lost its cooling system because of the earthquake last week.
She explained that her bill merely called for a review of the viability of reviving the BNPP and not for its outright operation.
"The bill that I have filed only asks for public officials concerned to validate the operability of the BNPP. In other words, we are asking experts in our government to tell us if we can still operate Bataan, check for operability with respect to mechanical, electronic, and structural," Santiago said.
"There are two stages: the first stage is that they will check, review, analyze and examine, then make recommendations. If the result is 'no go,' then we will proceed in permanently closing down the BNPP," she added.
If ever the recommendation is that it is still viable, Santiago said that this would not mean that the BNPP would be opened immediately.
"We are not going to open the plant, but cursorily we have to have all the experts at our command and within our resources validate it first," she said.
"It is alarmist to say we cannot have a nuclear power plant because look at what happened in Japan. We have to wait for what will be the effect of the partial meltdown in Fukushima before we make any comments with respect to the pending bill."
In her proposed bill, Santiago noted that nuclear energy is cheaper and cleaner compared to coal-fired plants.
Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said that he was open to re-examining the nuclear option.
"For me, the essential rule is: there is no such thing as absolute safety. If you always want absolute safety, we will never even develop the airline industry because there is always an element of an accident. It's just the level of safety commensurate to the level of public acceptance," he said.
He added that the BNPP option should be re-examined but not rushed because public acceptance would have to be secured first.
Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, on the other hand, said that he is personally in favor of nuclear energy but would like to see all of the studies about its viability in the Philippine context first.
"I also want to know why some are insisting that we use the Bataan site. Is it really just cheaper or more advantageous?" he said.
Clear and present danger
At the House of Representatives, Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo is urging President Aquino to permanently shut down the $2.3-billion BNPP, which his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, had mothballed.
In a resolution, Castelo said the threat of a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, and the previous Three Mile Island (US) and Chernobyl (Russia) accidents, should prompt the President to padlock the Bataan plant for good.
"The clear and present danger of a disaster of unseen magnitude that could be caused by a nuclear meltdown outweighs the benefits that could be derived from the proposed rehabilitation of the plant in Morong," he said.
Besides, he said the government would save P40 million a year in maintenance cost by padlocking the plant.
"Let all stakeholders view all the costs involved – namely $2.3 billion to complete (the plant) and P40 million a year to maintain it – as 'sunk costs' that the government can no longer or does not need to recover in favor of the absolute safety of our human populace," he added.
Looking on the bright side
But there is a bill pending in the House of Representatives seeking the rehabilitation and operation of the BNPP.
Its principal author is Pangasinan Rep. Carmen Cojuangco. Her husband, former Rep. Mark Cojuangco, authored the same measure in the last Congress.
The two believe that operation of the Morong plant could bring down the cost of electricity by at least P2 per kilowatt-hour.
Congressmen discovered in a hearing of the energy committee two weeks ago that the country now holds the unenviable record of having the highest power cost in the world. Electricity here costs more than in Japan.– Jess Diaz
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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