Among countries the Philippines could turn to is South Korea, which has offered to revive the Bataan nuclear power station north of the capital Manila. Japan, China and France may also consider holding talks about the Bataan project.
The US and the Philippines said recently they would open talks on a deal for the Asian nation to build nuclear power plants with American technology.
“We are also open to other countries. We should not set aside, however, America’s experience. There are 450 nuclear power plants in the world, and almost 100 in the US”, Arcilla said, quoted by the Philippine News Agency.
The Philippines is also considering investing in small modular reactors. The Philippines’ largest electricity distributor said it is in talks with the US about possibly using SMRs.
The head of the privately owned Manila Electric Company, or Meralco, said the utility is applying for a grant from the US to conduct a feasibility study for SMRs.
Marcos: ‘This Is The Right Time’
Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr said recently that “this is the right time” to reexamine the country’s approach and policy towards using nuclear energy, noting that with modern technology, safeguards have been placed against possible accidents.
In March, the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte, signed an executive order that included the option of nuclear power in the Southeast Asian country’s energy mix.
The Philippines has a nuclear station at Bataan, north of the capital Manila, but it has never operated and has been mothballed.
Bloomberg reported recently that the Philippine government is planning to commission a third party next year to evaluate whether Bataan is safe to operate.
Construction of the single Westinghouse pressurised water reactor unit, the only nuclear energy facility in Southeast Asia, began in the late 1970s under Ferdinand Marcos’s regime.
Work was stopped due to issues regarding corruption and safety, compounded by concerns following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
A recent poll showed that most Filipinos support the construction of a commercial nuclear power plant in the Philippines – an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands – as a potential answer to the country’s twin problems of precarious supply and Southeast Asia’s highest electricity costs.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said ‘this is the right time’ to reexamine the country’s approach and policy towards using nuclear energy.
