The geological hazards of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

(Fourth and last of a series)

Final thoughts

House Bill 4631 “mandating the immediate rehabilitation, commissioning and commercial operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant” has benefited from no geohazard assessment. It does not even taken into account the studies just discussed. Given the danger posed to millions of people, a thorough assessment of the very real natural hazards is urgently necessary. Instead of this bill, what we need is legislation that properly funds a thorough, inter-agency evaluation of the site. The study would properly be led by Phivolcs and involve geologists of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the National Institute of Geological Sciences, and the Geological Society of the Philippines. A seismic-reflection offshore survey around southern Bataan is also obviously necessary.

We also should remember that a technical audit of BNPP was commissioned by a Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on BNPP in 1988. The multi-disciplinary audit involved over 15 nuclear experts from the US, Germany, Brazil, South Korea and Japan. That audit was only preliminary. From 1988 to 1990 over 50 nuclear experts from the US and Europe made a much more extensive audit that cost the government $10 million. The study was kept confidential because of the pending litigation vs Westinghouse. Its many volumes remain locked up in the Senate vaults. The study should be made fully available for public scrutiny now; it may save much unnecessary and expensive duplication. After all, the Pinoy taxpayers paid for it, and are entitled to full perusal and proper use of it.

There are other very strong reasons why nuclear power is wrong for the Philippines. We have no uranium ore in the Philippines, and no hope of finding any. Reviving nuclear power here, in addition to putting many Filipinos in harm’s way, means that we would expend a huge amount of money to put ourselves at the mercies of countries that have uranium, much as we have made ourselves utterly dependent on petroleum-exporting companies.

The very well-funded global nuclear lobby claims that nuclear power generates no carbon dioxide to add to global warming. But much fossil fuel is spent to mine, mill and process uranium before it reaches a reactor. Every watt of electricity generated by a nuclear plant indirectly makes about a third as much CO2 as a watt generated by burning fossil fuel. That quantity inevitably will increase as the quality of the remaining ore goes down.

The Filipino taxpayer has already paid $2.3 billion for the plant, plus $460 million in interest, without receiving any benefit. Now it is proposed to spend another $1 billion to renovate it. Half of that funding is supposed to be paid by a tax of P0.10 on every kilowatt-hour consumed in the entire country for several years.

* * *

Kelvin Rodolfo is concurrently professor emeritus with the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois in Chicago, and an adjunct professor with the National Institute of Geological Sciences, University of the Philippines-Diliman. He is currently a DOST Balik Scientist. Discussion and corrections are welcome at [email protected].