Ex-congressman urges passing bill allowing 20% private ownership of BNPP

Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco is urging the Lower House to pass the measure allowing the private sector to own 20 percent of the 620-megawatt (MW) Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). “The bill I proposed last Congress and the new bill my wife is proposing in the present Congress allow a 20-percent private ownership in BNPP. We now feel that the BNPP is entirely owned by the Filipino people," Cojuangco said during a nuclear power forum on Friday. Cojuangco’s wife, Kimi, is now pushing for the revival of the BNPP under House Bill 1291, filed sometime in July. During his term, Cojuangco filed HB 04631 that mandated the immediate re-commissioning and commercial operation of nuclear plant. “Our thinking was about the good economics of nuclear energy [that will] benefit the Filipino people," Cojuangco pointed out. He has been urging the public to support nuclear power to secure the country’s power supply situation. Cojuangco said nuclear power can be sold at around P2.50 per kilowatt hour (kWh), or below the National Power Corp.’s current rate of P4.50 to P5 per kWh. President Benigno Aquino III had earlier said that he has no plans to revive BNPP. However, the President is open to nuclear energy as an option to secure the country’s long-term power requirements. Based on government estimates, the Philippines would need about $1 billion to rehabilitate BNPP while a newly built nuclear plant will cost between $1.24 billion and $2 billion per MW. In 1976, the administration of then President Ferdinand Marcos started building the BNPP. But in 1979, following the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the US, safety issues were raised and an inspection revealed that the BNPP had around 4,000 defects. It was nearly complete in 1986 when Marcos was overthrown in a people power revolt. The government had spent $2.3 billion for the nuclear facility it never used. — JE/VS, GMANews.TV