Binay wants clear policy on nuclear power

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Nancy Binay is urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to set a clear policy direction on tapping nuclear power as a source of electricity for the country.

Binay called for a dialogue among all stakeholders, including technical experts, on plans to open the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant as the Senate Committee on Energy started studying proposals to revive the BNPP.

“Let’s determine first what will be our policy towards nuclear energy,” Binay, vice chair of the committee, said.

Binay and other members of the panel, chaired by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, some members of the House of Representatives visited the BNPP last week to help determine the feasibility of firing up the 30-year old plant in Morong, Bataan.

She said the Senate could help in the formulation of the policy.

She said the sooner a decision is made on the BNPP, the better as the government is spending millions of pesos annually for the upkeep of the facility which has yet to produce a single kilowatt of power since its completion in the mid-1980s.

Binay said it is a good opportunity now for talks to decide on the use of the BNPP, given that the country is still spending on maintaining the facility.

The Philippines is highly dependent on electricity produced from coal and diesel, which provides over half of the country’s power requirements. The rest of the power comes from natural gas plants (30 percent) and from renewable sources (10 percent), which include geothermal, wind, hydropower and solar energy

The DOE said that in 2015, the country imported more than 17 million metric tons (MT) of coal, with Indonesia supplying the bulk of it. Power generation accounted for 79.77 percent of the 22 million MT of coal consumed last year.