Signature drive launched vs nuke plant revival

MANILA, Philippines - A group of environmentalists, scientists, and church leaders on Wednesday launched a signature drive against the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), saying it would only usher in further corruption in government. The Network Opposed to the BNPP Revival (NO to BNPP Revival) succeeded in tagging along several personalities like former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. and Sen. Ma. Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal to join the cause. In a press conference in Quezon City, the network – composed of at least 40 organizations – urged the public to oppose the resurrection of the BNPP, which the group said was a "dangerous and expensive demon of the past." The latest addition to the string of personalities who have begun throwing support to the revival opposition was Guingona. "The mothballed nuclear plant of 1976 was not just a glorified stove but a structure that embedded vital defects – one that could have spawned death and destruction in its wake," Guingona said. Guingona was referring to the roughly 4,000 defects identified in the 1980s by the Puno commission, a body later created to investigate the safety of the power plant. It was the exact report of the commission that pushed then President Corazon Aquino to mothball the BNPP in 1986. Among the project's defects cited in the report were the fact that the BNPP was erected in an area in Bataan (Morong) where active seismic activities continue to be recorded. Concern was also raised on the government's incapability to dispose off nuclear wastes that would be generated by the plants. "The government cannot take care of the country's household waste problems. So how can we even expect the government to dispose of nuclear waste," said Darrow Lucenario, a structural engineer from the Magallanes Property Development and Management, Inc. Uranium Lucenario, invited as a resource speaker at the event, blasted arguments claiming that putting up a nuclear plant in the country would dramatically bring down the local cost of energy. "How can we save money from this plant when the very raw material used in it – uranium – has to be imported," Lucenario said. He said the government can never be assured of getting cheap electricity from the BNPP as long as foreign suppliers of uranium could dictate the price for the raw material. The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), which joined the network, said the BNPP revival was already a decades-old issue being unearthed anew. "The BNPP is a relic of the past that was already laid to rest. It was and still is a bane to the people and the environment. It should not be raised from the dead," said Fr. Rex Reyes, NCCP secretary-general. For her part, Sen. Madrigal relayed through a text message her opposition to the rehabilitation of the closed-down nuclear plant. She assured that she would not let the other version of the BNPP re-activation bill, authored by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, pass the Senate. Currently, the House version of the bill (House Bill 4631) is undergoing interpellation at the House committee on appropriations. Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuanco, author of House Bill 4631, is proposing the appropriation of $1 billion to rehabilitate the defunct power plant in five years. Cojuanco said the completion of its revival would be in time for an alleged looming power supply shortage in 2012. The government through a contract with White Westinghouse began the construction of the BNPP in 1976 and completed it in 1984 at a cost of $2.3 billion, also in anticipation of an alleged looming power shortage in the country at that time. Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Saturnino "Satur" Ocampo said the government could no longer afford to lose such amount, given that more than $2 billion had already been "wasted" during the plant's construction. Ocampo suspects that the proponents of the House bill are working double time to pass the discussion of the proposal over to the plenary. "Sisikapin nilang paabutin iyan sa plenary bago kami mag-recess sa March 20 [They are hoping that the bill would reach the plenary before we go on recess]," Ocampo. Ocampo assured that members of the minority block would ensure that the bill does not progress at the House. - GMANews.TV