Meralco to send Pinoy nuclear engineers to US, China

MANILA, Philippines — Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is sending the pilot batch of scholars under its Filipino Scholars and Interns On Nuclear Engineering (Fission) program to the US and China.

The five Fission scholars will participate in a two-year program at partner institutions abroad, with two heading to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US and three going to Harbin Engineering University in China.

Upon completion of the academic program, the scholars will be sent to nuclear technology firms for their internship. They are expected to return to the Philippines in 2028 and take on new roles in Meralco’s nuclear power generation unit.

Pangilinan, who serves as Meralco chairman and CEO, stressed that the Philippines should be ready and “committed to nuclear energy.”

“Supporting aspiring energy professionals will help build a talent pipeline of nuclear energy experts, paving the way for a smarter and greener future for our country,” he added.

Meralco Power Academy (MPA), the energy education unit of the distribution utility, manages and oversees the rollout of Fission, which was launched last September.

Since then, MPA has teamed up with top universities offering international graduate programs in nuclear engineering to provide its scholars with access to laboratories and enable them to take part in ongoing research.

“Fission is a major step in accelerating the education and training of technical and regulatory talents in the highly specialized field of nuclear engineering,” Meralco executive vice president and COO Ronnie Aperocho said.

This initiative, he added, demonstrated Meralco’s commitment to continuously developing the workforce in the country’s energy sector.

This year, MPA relaunched the six-week power camp internship program, welcoming 21 engineering students from the Ateneo de Manila University, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas, Mapua University and Mindanao State University.

The students are set to join on-the-job training and industry immersion from July 3 to August 13, covering 240 internship hours.