PCCI pushes nuclear power development

The country's largest business group urged the government on Friday to consider tapping nuclear power to help develop more sufficient domestic energy sources and set up a private-public sector committee for such a review. The group, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, argued that nuclear power plants are now a proven technology and should therefore be a safe choice. "It is timely indeed for the government and the private sector to start discussions and review the merits of nuclear power as a long-term option, while realizing that nuclear power plants is now [sic] a matured and proven technology that provides clean electricity at predictable and competitive costs," Benedicto V. Yujuico, PCCI energy committee chairman, said in a statement. The Philippines will have to consider this option to keep up with neighbors Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand who have announced plans to build nuclear reactors for electricity generation, PCCI President Francis C. Chua said in the same statement. The government had mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which was built from 1976-1984 to the tune of $2.3 billion. The Korean Electric Power Corp. had informed the government last year that the plant could still be rehabilitated. Besides safety, oft-repeated arguments against nuclear power focus on cost -- in terms of direct construction and maintenance costs, as well as the time and money needed to educate enough experts to run a nuclear program and plants. The Energy department, for its part, has stated in the Philippine Energy Plan 2007-2035 that the country must look into prospects of nuclear power to address problems associated with reliance on oil for power, particularly volatile prices and carbon emission. PCCI said the government should consider forming a committee of private and public sector leaders to draft a longer-term energy policy road map which could include the construction of nuclear power plants. - BusinessWorld