Lopez Group mulls over venturing into nuclear power generation

Lopez Group of Companies, the business conglomerate owned by the Lopez clan of Iloilo, is considering to venture into nuclear power as part of its power-generation portfolio. When asked over the weekend if First Gen Corp. is open to nuclear power for power generation, Lopez Group chairman emeritus Oscar Lopez told reporters: "It's not [impossible]." First Gen is the primary holding company for the power generation and energy-related businesses of the Lopez Group. Lopez said First Gen has been concentrating on "clear sources of energy" such as natural gas, heat, water and wind. "[And] I guess [nuclear power] would still be clean," he added, pointing out that First Gen has been doing some feasibility studies on nuclear power since 2007. Also, Lopez said it may not be feasible to convert the mothballed 600-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) into natural gas-run power facility. "Previous studies show that it would not be feasible to convert BNPP to a natural gas plant. It would be very expensive. It would not be financially viable but we will still look at it," he clarified. First Gen operates natural gas plants in Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo in Batangas. San Miguel Corp., the country's largest power player, has already signified interest to invest in nuclear power generation. It is also planning to bid for BNPP once government decides on how to dispose of it. Lopez admitted that there are still concerns about the use of nuclear energy. "We need to address the issue of waste disposal. We should be able to determine first where to dump the waste before we could proceed with this kind of project and this will entail a lot of investment," he said. Earlier, the Energy Department said the Aquino administration will come up with a technical paper on the way forward for nuclear power. —JE, GMANews.TV