Mindanao, Palawan eyed for modular nuclear sites

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) does not expect nuclear energy to be included in the country’s power mix within the term of the current administration, but said steps are being taken to make the technology available in the future.

“This will be legacy work. We will open the doors for the future, the next administration, and at least the regulations are there,” DOE Undersecretary Sharon Garin said.

“The legal framework is there, but from feasibility up to the development stage, that will take time because this is a very sensitive issue and sensitive technology,” she said.

The DOE is eyeing the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), with capacities ranging from 50 megawatts to 300 MW.

SMRs are faster to build compared to large nuclear plants and can be deployed to off-grid areas for a more reliable source of electricity.

However, Garin estimates that even these SMRs would take 10 years to develop.

“If you do it the regular way, you have to have siting, you have feasibility studies and they have to develop the site to make sure that it’s durable enough to ensure safety of our people, I think (it will take) 10 years. So that’s long term,” Garin said.

Potential sites for SMRs are in Mindanao and Palawan, Garin said.

“The basic fundamental is where it’s safest as to geography and the fault lines. But we haven’t had an official release of the list yet because it’s still under assessment,” she said.

As for the Bataan nuclear power plant, Garin said a third party assessment is also being considered to see if the facility is still safe to use.

“We need to make sure if we want it open, we need to make sure it’s safe. So there has been some studies already or assessments, but these are done by different companies that are possible suppliers also. So what possibly we can do is do a third party assessment and also for the departments or the bureaus that we have to do the study also,” Garin said.

“We are not saying that Bataan is the only way to go, nor are we saying that we cannot go for Bataan, but we need to be very careful. We need to make sure that people are safe, they feel safe. Hence we need the regulatory and legislative legal framework for this,” she said.

Garin said the DOE is open to exploring other energy technologies available.