DoE prepares recommendation for Bataan nuclear plant

Manila Standard Today
By Alena Mae S. Flores | Jan. 09, 2014 at 12:02am

The Energy Department said Wednesday it will come out with the recommendation on the mothballed 600-megawatt Bataan nuclear power plant before President Benigno Aquino steps down from office in 2016.

“Whether it will be mothballed, activated or scrapped totally, my thrust is this administration will decide on it,” Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla told reporters.

Aquino made an announcement shortly after assuming the presidency in 2010 that he would not revive the operations of Bataan nuclear power plant due to safety considerations.

Aquino also shelved any new plans for the facility, following the Fukushima nuclear power disaster in 2011.

His mother, former President Cory Aquino, mothballed the Bataan nuclear power plant in 1986, citing safety concerns. The plant, critics claimed, was sitting on a fault line.

Petilla, however, said the department would conduct a study on the social impact and safety considerations of nuclear power before making its recommendation to

Aquino.

“BNPP, basically, that is a decision the President will have to take rather than myself. Of course, he will ask for recommendation but we’re actually looking, studying, looking at the angle, what will be the effect. But in the end it will be given to the people to decide,” he said.

He said the department would conduct the study and forward it to National Power Corp. which maintains the facility.

Napocor spends around P50 million annually to maintain the mothballed facility.   source