Foreign firms want to invest in PHL's nuclear power industry — govt officials

Foreign nuclear equipment suppliers have expressed their willingness to invest in the country's nuclear power industry, government officials told reporters Wednesday. "These suppliers of nuclear power plants are interested in putting up a nuclear power plant in the Philippines," National Power Corp. (Napocor) spokesman Dennis Gana said in an interview with reporters. He said the US, Japan, Korea, Russia, and France have already showed interest in the Philippines' nuclear power industry as "we are the only country in the region [that] has not gone [into] nuclear energy." Another industry official shared the same sentiment with Gana, saying that most foreign companies capable of providing nuclear power facilities are interested to come into the country. "However, most of them are just monitoring the development of our nuclear policy, but there are some who are more proactive," the source, who refused to named, told reporters. Napocor, together with the Energy Department and other government agencies, takes the lead in studying nuclear power development options for the Philippines. The government has received numerous proposals from the foreign community to study the possibility of rehabilitating the mothballed 600-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). Other companies expressed willingness to provide assistance to the government in coming up with its nuclear power development program. One of them was US-based Excel Services Corp. who provides regulatory and engineering services to the nuclear industry, nuclear regulators, and federal agencies in the US and other countries. Toshiba Corp., one of Japan's biggest supplier of nuclear reactors, has also expressed interest to help the Philippines re-power the BNPP. Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) also expressed interest in reviving the BNPP. It already conducted a study on the country's mothballed nuclear facility. Kansai Electric Power Corp. and Tokyo Electric Power Corp., on the other hand, wants to provide technical assistance to the Philippine government for its nuclear power program. -- JE/OMG, GMANews.TV