DOST allays fears on nuclear energy

Nuclear energy should not be feared, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) stressed at the conclusion of the 2015 Philippine Nuclear Congress (PNC) the various benefits of such.

DOST's Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) organized the PNC on Dec. 7 to 9, with hundreds of foreign and local delegates, including from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) based in Vienna, Austria, led by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano.

In an interview with the Manila Bulletin, Teofilo Y. Garcia, head of PNRI's Health Physics Research Section, one of these benefits is electricity generation, though the Philippines is not yet into it.

"Hopefully, in the future we can have it (nuclear energy for electricity generation)," he said.

"People should not be afraid of nuclear energy, because we can derive so many benefits from nuclear energy," he said, adding nuclear medicine is very important and being used by many, particularly in cases of diagnostic of cancer cases.

"In industries, it is a well-known fact that we use nuclear energy, also in the academe, in agriculture the principle of mutation breeding (biotechnology). We produce a lot of varieties of plants which are better in producing yield, and so on," said Garcia.

On the environment, the PNRI official also revealed the IAEA through Amano has approved another radiation monitoring equipment for the Philippines.

"We are going to install it in Puerto Princesa (Palawan)," he said, recalling the IAEA this year already donated the Eco-Friendly Radiation Detection (EFRD) 3500 equipment to the DOST.