Gibo open to nuclear power but believes BNPP should stay shut

Administration party standard-bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Friday said he is open to studying nuclear power use to solve the Philippines’ energy shortage, but maintained that the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) should be permanently closed. “We must continue the sustainable energy roadmap. However, that has its cost… We must seriously study nuclear power," Teodoro said in an interview with members of the Department of National Defense Press Corps on Friday. Energy sourced from hydroelectric plants has become “unreliable" due to the El Nino dry spell and the changes in the climatic patterns, the former defense secretary said. “We must follow the example of the United Arab Emirates, one of the biggest oil exporters in the word. They put up nuclear power plants now because [they are] safer and cleaner… We have the potential for developing the human capability to do that," he said. However, Teodoro maintained that the BNPP should not be revived, citing the various controversies around the power plant’s construction. “Ang daming kontrobersiya masyado. (There are too many controversies.) That will be a political suicide for a good program," he said. In an earlier forum, Teodoro said it is “useless" to spend government money on the mothballed plant, since it is already an “old structure." Former Philippine strongman President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the building of the BNPP in 1976, thinking it was the solution to the energy crisis the country was experiencing that time. But the plant’s construction was hounded by overpricing allegations when its cost jacked up to $2.3 billion from an initial projected cost of $600 million upon its completion in 1984. The plant was later mothballed in 1986 due to safety concerns including its proximity to two volcanoes, its supposed location above a fault line, and radiation that may possibly escape into the atmosphere. - Andreo C. Calonzo, RJAB Jr./GMANews.TV