Russia to help revive our nuclear capability
Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is back home after his longest trip to Moscow to meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and signed many bilateral agreements with the Russians. One such highly important agreement was when the Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Department of Energy (DoE) signed an agreement last Friday to introduce the use of nuclear power in the Philippines in order to stabilize electricity supply.
The agreement includes the possibility of Rosatom deploying floating generators, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
I’d like to point out that floating power plants are commonly used by many power companies. I recall visiting even a floating power barge operated by Aboitiz Corp. in Butuan City. But a floating nuclear powered plant isn’t really that common. As expected, this issue raised safety concerns among environmental groups, including accusations from Greenpeace that it could be a “floating Chernobyl”, and doubts about whether floating nuclear power stations meant to provide power to remote regions are economically viable. Of course Greenpeace is always against nuclear energy.
However I would also like to point out that floating nuclear power plants have been fueling US Aircraft carriers and the world’s nuclear powers all have nuclear powered submarines to provide their strategic nuclear weapons advantage. So it is not really something that causes panic. For sure this system is totally different from the Chernobyl power plant that blew up 30 years ago. I also gathered that the US deployed a small nuclear reactor onboard a barge in the Panama Canal Zone in the 1960s and 70s, however, they have never been mass-produced. But like I said, nuclear technology has also changed in the last 30 years so the big question is, will this nuclear floating power plant be of big help to the Philippines? This is something that Philippine scientists should explain to the Filipino people.
Meanwhile it is good to know that both the Philippines and Russia are part of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and are parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Mind you, we lost our nuclear advantage due to ugly politics when the opposition of the Marcos Dictatorship said that the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) was a corrupt deal with US American company Westinghouse, only to learn when then Tita Cory Aquino became president that the BNPP deal was above board. But by then the Chernobyl nuclear disaster happened months after Tita Cory took over. So nuclear plants did not appeal to the Filipino people.
It is sad to note that the BNPP which would have been the Philippines’ first nuclear power plant has at least three working sister plants which are very profitable and has been safely operating for 40 years. These include Angra in Brazil, Krsko in Slovenia and Kori2 in Korea. So who is the biggest loser in that deal? The Filipino people… thanks to the Aquino political machinery that sent the fake news to demonize the Marcoses at that time.
Meanwhile, DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the agreement with Rosatom both referred to the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) and the setting up of a new power source. He added “They will evaluate BNPP if it can still be made operational and study the possibility of a new plant in another area.” Indeed, we should seriously study what other options are available for the Philippines.
* * * I saw the Philippine Star video on the modern jeepney displayed by many manufacturers at the first Road and Traffic Expo a couple of weeks ago. I saw five jeepneys but one didn’t have any air-conditioning, which for me should not be acceptable simply because it doesn’t fit the present day standards for mass transportation. Like it or not, a new jeepney that doesn’t have any air-conditioning should never be allowed to serve our commuters. It doesn’t matter to me if the manufacturer is local or international, but they must conform to the modern technology of today.
* * * Just to inform our readers, the 6th Farm Tourism Conference will be held in Cebu City on Nov. 7 at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel. I first joined the Farm Tourism Conference in Tagaytay way back in 2016 to recognize the country’s foremost farm tourism pioneers, practitioners, developers, and advocates from both the private and government sectors. Unfortunately I could not push my advocacy further due to my kidney transplant a few months after the conference. I got the guru of Farm Tourism and former Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Mina Gabor who is also the president of the International School of Sustainable Tourism (ISST) to be in Cebu City for the 6th Farm Tourism Conference, which would certainly be of great importance not just to the people in the Visayas, but Mindanao as well. So get yourself involved now in this project.