Science group to PHL govt: Protect Pinoys from nuke emission

Following an explosion that rocked a nuclear plant in quake- and tsunami-devastated Japan, a science advocacy group urged the Philippine government on Saturday to take steps to protect Filipinos from possible environmental effects of the incident. The Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM), which made the call, also said the incident should make proponents of reviving the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) think twice. “Japan should issue a full disclosure of the status of their nuclear plants and immediately implent protocols to contain the potential meltdown," AGHAM chairperson Giovanni Tapang said in a statement posted on the group's website. “The affected communities should be protected and nearby countries such as the Philippines should also ready in case the emissions affect our surroundings," Tapang added. AGHAM cited reports the reactor was already leaking radiation eight times the normal levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Fukushima 1's control room. Tapang said this nuclear plant accident in Japan should serve as an ample warning to the Philippine government against rushing headlong into the BNPP's revival. He also cited similar problems in the past, such as barrels knocked over by aftershocks possibly releasing radioactive material into the environment, as in the case of the 2007 Kashiwazaki-Kariwa accident caused by a magnitude-6.6 earthquake near Niigata, Japan. AGHAM said that in that incident, 400 drums of low-level nuclear waste were knocked over, 40 of which opened and may have emitted traces of radioactive cobalt-60 and chromium-51 in the environment. “There are chances of having a similar accident if the government operates the BNPP. The Philippines is vulnerable to earthquakes, [and the BNPP itself is] near the Manila Trench and sitting on the slopes of Mount Natib," said Tapang. “Things also become problematic if the operations of a facility like the BNPP will be handed over to a private foreign firm like the Korean Electric Company (KEPCO) which had conducted feasibility tests on the plant," he added. He cited reports that firms from Russia, Japan and South Korea were reportedly interested in operating the BNPP. “What should be done is to reverse the privatization of the power industry and build safe and reliable sources of electricity. The country has vast indigenous energy resources from fossil fuels to alternative energy that we can use if only the government stops selling these to private investors," he said.—JMA/JV, GMA News