CBCP joins fight vs revival of Bataan nuke plant

02/27/2009

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has joined the calls against the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), emphasizing that it is the most dangerous and expensive way to generate electricity.

“We join the Environmentalist Group Greenpeace and the Diocese of Balanga (town in Bataan province) headed by Bishop Socrates Villegas in opposing the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant,” CBCP president Angel Lagdameo said in a pastoral statement.

At the same time, the Jaro town, Iloilo province prelate appealed to the country’s lawmakers to reject the proposal to open the facility, which was mothballed in the 1970s.

“We earnestly appeal to our congressmen, with fervent hope and prayer, that Congress will completely and irrevocably reject the opening of the nuclear plant, (which is) the most dangerous and expensive way to generate electricity,” Lagdameo said in the pastoral statement.

The CBCP also favored the calls of the anti-BNPP congressmen and the Greenpeace Forum that the mothballed facility in Morong town, Bataan be dismantled as its revival “will be most hazardous to the health and life of the people.”

The controversial issue was revived after Pangasinan province Rep. Mark Cojuangco recently filed House Bill 4631 or the “Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Commissioning Act of 2008,” which pushes the rehabilitation of the sidelined power plant for use in generating electricity to ensure of enough supply for the country.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia, meanwhile, has warned about the absence of an independent regulatory body for the BNPP, noting that “this shortcoming will help further spell disaster” if the facility is operated.

“International safety standards call for the establishment of such a body which the Philippines does not have yet,” Greenpeace Southeast Asia (SEA) regional nuclear energy campaigner Tessa de Ryck said in a press briefing in Quezon City yesterday.

The BNPP is a nuclear plant whose construction was commissioned by the administration of the late, ousted President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s to help address the country’s power needs following the 1973 worldwide energy crisis.

The facility, which was completed in 1984, is said to be able to produce 620 megawatts of electricity.

De Ryck acknowledged the existence of the state-run Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), but said the agency’s capacity to form the required regulatory body was “too limited.”

This means an all-encompassing nuclear learning program must be established first for members of the proposed body so they can be prepared for the work, she said.

“The regulator must be able to close down the BNPP when needed due to defects and other reasons,” she noted.

According to De Ryck, forming such a body is necessary since managing nuclear waste is essential, particularly as the Philippine geologic conditions “aren’t stable for permanent storage” of nuclear by-products.

Formed in 1958 as the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission, the PNRI is mandated to conduct research and development of safe uses for nuclear energy.

The PNRI, an agency under the Department of Science and Technology, is also mandated to institute and enforce regulations on such uses.

Greenpeace continues to bat for the BNPP’s conformity with required international safety standards, saying this will help spare the Philippines from incurring nuclear accidents.

The organization cited among examples of such accidents abroad the coolant leak in Slovenia’s Krysko nuclear plant last year and the unplanned outages and turbine malfunctioning in Czechoslovakia’s Temelin reactor.

“Many of these accidents are hardly reported in media,” Greenpeace SEA campaign manager Beau Baconguis said.

Baconguis at the same time lauded Representatives Edcel Lagman (Albay province), Ana Theresa Hontiveros-Baraquel (Akbayan party-list) and Lorenzo Tañada III (Quezon province) for committing to find an alternative proposed legislation to House Bill 4631, mandating the commercial operation of the BNPP and providing funds for such purpose. PNA

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