Philippines / Utility Applying For US Grant For SMR Feasibility Study

Country also considering revival of Bataan nuclear plant
Utility Applying For US Grant For SMR Feasibility Study
The mothballed Bataan nuclear power station in the Philippines. Courtesy Wikipedia.
The Philippines’ largest electricity distributor has said it is in talks with the United States about possibly using small modular reactors.

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.

According to press reports in the Southeast Asian country, Meralco said SMRs’ size and reliability make the technology “suitable for an archipelagic topography such as the Philippines”, an archipelago nation of more than 7,000 islands, many with unreliable power supply.

Meralco’s move comes as the country’s president Ferdinand Marcos Jr pushes for alternative sources of energy, including the use of nuclear power.

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