EDITORIAL - Inviting disaster

The report yesterday from Pangasinan was that the local government had not yet abandoned its plan to have a nuclear power plant constructed along its coastline. Never mind if a nuclear power plant sitting along the coast of Japan’s Fukushima prefecture was rocked by two more explosions and a fire in one of its storage pits for spent fuel yesterday, raising fears of nuclear fallout all the way to Tokyo.

Japan, which puts a premium on product quality and safety standards, had several backup systems to prevent a meltdown at its Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power facility. But there was no backup for when all the backup systems broke down after a Magnitude 9 earthquake, followed by a cataclysmic tsunami, struck the power plant and the rest of Fukushima, knocking out not just electricity supply but also the generators that could have maintained the cooling system in the nuclear reactors. Emergency teams had to resort to bringing in seawater to cool the reactors and spent fuel rods. But the four explosions so far – plus the fire that broke out in a spent fuel pit, directly releasing radioactive substances into the air – showed that the stopgap measures weren’t working.

As of yesterday, panic over the possible fallout had reached earthquake-hit Tokyo, where people braced for the approach of a radioactive cloud being blown by the wind from Fukushima.

If Japan and several other countries lying in the Pacific Ring of Fire – a belt of active volcanoes and earthquake faults – have decided to use nuclear power for their energy needs, that is their lookout. These countries believe they are technologically advanced enough to prevent a major disaster in their nuclear power plants. But the nuclear disaster in Japan should make Philippine proponents of harnessing nuclear power for energy rethink their position. The Philippines can turn to safer energy sources for its needs.

Philippine volcanologists have not revised the results of a study conducted several years ago, showing earthquake faults in the country including a major one that cuts through eastern and southern Metro Manila and neighboring areas. A Magnitude 9 earthquake, or even a slightly weaker one like the quake that devastated Luzon two decades ago, could trigger a disaster in a nuclear plant that could engulf huge swaths of the archipelago. And Philippine response is unlikely to be as efficient as that of the Japanese. Until the safety of nuclear power plants in an earthquake belt can be guaranteed, it would be foolhardy to tempt fate and import this technology.