Nuclear power as best option

Even in defeat, our very own Manny Pacquiao showed the world his fine character that we should all be proud of. Broadcast on TV all over the world was his gallantry and sportsmanship, when he calmly accepted his opponent’s victory, and said he was willing to have a rematch.

Pacman’s gesture reminded me of several quotable quotes. John McGraw said, “Tactics, fitness, stroke ability, adaptability, experience, and sportsmanship are all necessary for winning.”

Mark Twain also said, “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.” And Chili Davis said, “Sportsmanship and easygoing methods are all right, but it is the prospect of a hot fight that brings out the crowds.”

By his action, Manny has further won the admiration of his fans and observers from across the globe. Let’s wait for his hot rematch with Timothy Bradley. This brings us to a hot topic — the rehabilitation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant — mothballed since 1986 — now ardently espoused by former Rep. Mark Cojuangco. The congressman, representing the 5th district of Pangasinan in the 14th Congress, is not only gunning for the rehabilitation of the BNPP, but is also asking the support of local governments in Mindanao and the Visayas for building smaller nuclear power plants in their areas. The provincial boards of Zamboanga del Sur and Pangasinan have passed resolutions inviting the national government to explore the feasibility of locating power plants in their areas.

The issue of nuclear power is still controversial, triggered by the fear of nuclear power plant breakdowns in Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union, the Third Mile Island in Dauphin, Pennsylvania, and lately, Fukishima in Japan, are bound to occur in a rehabilitated plant in Bataan, thereby harming the population around the plant with radiation leakage. Cojuangco sought to dispel the fears and misconceptions of media persons at a Bulong Pulungan session recently, and present the advantages of nuclear power as a viable source of energy, particularly at this time of high prices and - a diminishing supply — of electric power particularly in Mindanao.

Armed with a power point presentation and years of research into the issue, the businessman explained that nuclear power is the cheapest, safest and most reliable source of alternative energy and that the BNPP can be rehabilitated at a lower cost than putting up another power plant using wind and fossil fuel power other conventional renewable energy sources. Wind power requires an investment of 4.5 to 7.5 times than the investment required for nuclear or fossil fuel power, Solar is even more expensive, and the renewable, except geothermal, are not of base-load quality, that is, being able to supply power needs 24 hours, seven days a week.

Cojuangco said lack of electricity stops the economy, growth, job creation, and other activities of man. He said that in the 1960s and 1970s, the Philippines had one of the highest per capita consumption of power, much higher than that of South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. But now the per capita consumption of Filipinos, compared to South Koreans, is 1: 25. This means, he said, that an average South Korean is 25 times richer than a Filipino.

It’s public knowledge that the high cost of electricity in this country has also driven away foreign investors. Local businessmen are of course complaining of the high cost of electric power, as well as the increasingly high cost of labor. Housewives are moaning about high electric bills. Cojuangco assured everyone at the media forum that nuclear power will bring relief to industries and consumers. One can expect the generation charge to be cut in half, like if one’s electric bill’s generation charge is P5 per kilowatt hour, that will be down to P2.50 per kh. That will surely be a relief for everyone.

As to the safety of the Bataan nuclear power plant, Cojuangco said a group of reliable scientists has investigated the plant facility and found it to be safe, and of high international standards. Rehabilitating it would cost just about a billion US dollars, which is much lower than building a new plant. One remembers that the present plant cost $2.2 billion to build, and President Corazon Aquino, who ordered the mothballing of the facility, and succeeding presidents, continued to pay for the interest on the loan from the US Export-Import Bank.

He gave the assurance of the Bataan facility as far from an earthquake fault — one of the fears spread by oppositionists to the facility. One remembers of course, that the said fault was just one of the reasons for the plant’s mothballing. Cojuangco said several government agencies, including the Phivolcs, said the nearest fault line to Bataan is Iba, Zambales, quite a distance from the plant site. This was confirmed by Dr. Caloy Arcilla of the UP- NIGS, who said the scientists were using modern techniques in ground penetrating radar resistivity analysis. Anti- nuclear activists were allowed to cross- check the findings of the scientists, and found nothing of their claimed fault line.

Cojuangco’s presentation showed spic and shiny facilities inside the BNPP. As to fear of radioactivity, slides showed a child eating an apple, with the text saying “radiation dosage from eating one banana is -0.01 millirem, and radiation dosage from standing in front of a running BNPP for one year is -0.009 millirem.

Giant structures are to be built to contain radioactive wastes for years, thus preventing the contamination of community water systems and the local environment.

To further claims of negative radioactivity, a slide showed US Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu saying, “A typical coal plant emits 100 times more radiation than a nuclear plant, given the fly ash emissions of radioactive particles.”

US President Barack Obama is said to have approved the construction of two nuclear power plants in the US. The Nuclear Regulatory Committee has given permit for the construction of these plants in 30 years.

Cojuangco’s wife, now Pangasinan 5th district’s representative, has taken up the cudgels for her husband, with her filing of HB 1291, “mandating an immediate validation process which satisfies internationally accepted nuclear power industry norms to determine the BNPP’s operability, culminating in either the immediate rehabilitation, certification and commercial operation or, the immediate permanent closure and salvage value recovery” of the BNPP.

Kim’s bill urges that it be the policy of the State ” to develop nuclear energy — which has been proven by world experience to be reliable, sustainable, efficient, environment- friendly and cost- effective — as a distinct and substantial part of the country’s energy mix. It is also a tool to address the country’s electric generating capacity shortfall which is projected to happen in the year 2012, and the worsening problem of global warming due to carbon emissions, and to bring about a cleaner environment by eliminating the spread of heavy metals, toxic substances, and radioactive elements which occur through the continued use of the conventional and traditional fossil fuel power generating technologies.”

President P- Noy has been reported as saying that the rehabilitation of the BNPP must be put on hold — but, one hopes, not for a long time.