PH lawmaker welcomes Duterte's aversion to reopen Bataan nuclear power plant

BAYAN Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate yesterday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s stand rejecting the use of nuclear power in the country.

 “This is good and one less of a problem that would haunt Filipinos. The government should instead concentrate more on renewable energy rather than dangerous sources of power like the long mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP),” said Zarate.

            Earlier, the lawmaker expressed strong apprehension on the renewed interests to open the mothballed BNPP, saying that the "dangers and disadvantages far outweighs the presumptive benefits it may bring."

"Numerous issues ranging from health, environment, economics, nuclear contamination, as well as the unsolved problem of nuclear waste disposal are grave concerns that should be taken into considerations by our energy officials before we should think of opening the BNPP," said Zarate.

“Furthermore, the issues of health risks and environmental damage from uranium mining, processing and transport, the risk of nuclear meltdown or sabotage, and the problem of radioactive nuclear waste cannot just be set aside or ignored," said Zarate, chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

 Citing Dr. Giovanni Tapang, convenor of NO TO BNPP Revival, he said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) itself had already ruled "that the BNPP failed the safety location  requirement as it is located near Natib Volcano and is very near a fault line.”

“Experts also said that nuclear reactors themselves are enormously complex machines where many things can and do go wrong, and there have been many serious nuclear accidents in the recent years, like the 2011 Fukushima Disaster in Japan," the progressive solon said.

 "In fact, these experts also argue that when all the energy-intensive stages of the nuclear fuel chain are considered -- from uranium mining to nuclear decommissioning--nuclear power is not a low-carbon electricity source. Nor is it cheap,” said Zarate.

 “What we need now to have a stable and cheaper power supply is for government to tap more renewable sources of energy, stop the privatization of the remaining state-owned generation facilities like the Agus-Pulangi Hydropower Complex in Mindanao and reacquire the previously privatized power plants," he added.

            "Scrapping  the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which resulted to  us having the most expensive electric rates in Asia, is a must  if we want to be freed from the greed of the energy oligarchs," ended Zarate.