Position paper on the putting up of a Nuclear Power Plants in the Philippines

Submitted by:
Noval, Pexel S.
Pelicano, Xrystynne Jhoei B.
Resurreccion, John Ezekiel A.
Salundaga, Lian Justin

ChE-A02

Submitted to:
Engr. Eden Erasga
CHM031 Professor

August 2019
I. Introduction

The Philippines nowadays is facing a severe power shortage in which many Filipinos
suffer. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the most commonly used source of
energy by a household is electricity. Some places in the Philippines are experiencing blackouts
due to power shortages or the insufficient source of energy. The Philippines uses different kinds
of energy, renewable energy, and non-renewable energy. Specifically, coal is the main source of
energy in Luzon and in Mindanao. On the other hand, half of the Visayas is supplied by renewable
energy. One type of renewable energy that has been disputed by years to replace fossil fuels is
Nuclear Energy. However, despite the tremendous amount of energy that can be taken from the
nuclear power plant the ability of our country to build, maintain, and protect the environment from
this perilous source of energy is still contentious. Do we really need this kind of resource to
underpin the shortage of our electrical energy even though there are lots of available clean
renewable energy that are safe and easier to control? Can a third world country maintain the operation
of a power plant that is operated solely by powerful nations?

The placement of a nuclear power plant in the Philippines should not be implemented as it requires
a large amount of money. In addition, if the radioactive wastes are not disposed of properly, it will affect
the health of the workers and the community near to it. Equally important, it will require trained people to
handle the power plant.

II. Body

Constructing a nuclear power plant in our country needs a lot of funds to attain the safeness
of it to our environment or to our country. Our country is well-known in corruption, meaning there
is no proper distribution of money or funds for the projects that are planned for the betterment of
our country. The country will face a serious problem by having a malpractice use of funds in
building a nuclear power plant. Equally important, nuclear power plants must have high-end
materials and will need good engineering. Before the power plant starts, it will be inspected by
Engineers and Safety personnel. Just like what happened to the Bataan Nuclear power plant, it was
inspected and stopped the operation due to corruption and safety. It did not meet the International
standards and the safety standards in building a nuclear power plant.

Having this issue, by pushing this Bataan nuclear power plant through and not checking its
construction, people might experience the radioactivity it has. Several weeks or months, it will
cause a nuclear disaster to our country, and will most likely similar to Chernobyl in Ukraine.
Furthermore, facing this kind of disaster in our country is a big problem for us. In brief, it is a good
decision that the Bataan nuclear power plant was never opened and operated.

In terms of materials used in the nuclear power plant, Uranium is the main material. In our
country, we don’t have a large amount of Uranium in order to run a power plant. It is either we
don’t have Uranium or just a small amount of Uranium that our country has. Still, it is not enough
to make a tremendous amount of energy in the Philippines. It is most likely our common source
of energy will be used. Obviously, our country will carry or buy this material in other countries.
 For short, we will spend a lot of money just to have a supply of a large amount of Uranium
in our country. Having a nuclear power plant that is established and operated has its effects on the
environment and to the country itself.

According to D. Kim of Stanford University, building a Nuclear Power Plant would require
a large area that is nearby to bodies of water since it would expel the heat as part of its condenser
system. If a large area is required, it would mean that deforestation must be achieved in order for
the plant to stand on its position. In other words, building a Nuclear power plant will affect rich
biodiversity such as marine life and the natural habitat of multiple creatures and this could result
in an imbalance in ecology in a region.

Another factor that should be considered is the country’s geographical location. The
Philippines lies behind the Pacific Ring of Fire and according to UNDP Philippines, it makes the
country extremely vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, volcanic hazards,
and tsunamis. Building a Nuclear facility is not safe and extremely hazardous if it lies in a region
that is prone to natural disasters. If there were possible accidents in the plant or affected by a strong
natural calamity, it would possibly result in a meltdown and will immediately emit extremely high
radioactive waves to nearby regions that would affect a lot of people and its diverse economy.

However, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is planning to reopen today and being
debated in the senate. This is because of the country’s energy demands and its increasing rate of
fuel for coal power plants as it is the major source of power of the country. In an ABS-CBN report,
the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) stated that BNPP is on safe
ground. Department of Energy, Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum said in a statement that the
BNPP may encounter possible minimal hazards such as minimal ground shaking which he said
can be mitigated. He dismissed a possible volcanic eruption of a nearby volcano Mt. Natib which
he said that it is no longer active. He also added that the BNPP is far away from fault lines and it
lies on a solid foundation of hard rock. He insisted that the BNPP is safe although there is a very
minimal ground shaking which can be mitigated.

Phivolcs stated that BNPP is safe and it stood on a solid foundation of rock but will still
experience a relatively small amount of ground shaking that can be mitigated. If that’s the case,
then there’s still an activity beneath the earth’s surface connected to its nearby volcano. Let us
again consider the factors according to UNDP. Our country lies behind the pacific ring of fire
which is basically all those fault lines and volcanoes belong to this ring are all interconnected.
There might be cases of earthquakes anytime soon or a tsunami that could possibly wash out the
plant. Our country is also the pathway of typhoons and floods that would affect the failure of the
plant that could lead to the destruction of the region and nearby regions through high radioactivity.

In accordance with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Benjamin E. Diokno announced that
our country’s external debt is rising to US $80.4 Billion as of March 2019. If The BNPP will be
continued to reopen and run today, it would cost US $2.3 Billion (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2016)
and yet we are not ready to operate it as we have an existing debt of $80.4 Billion. If we are going
to push and operate the plant, our debt will continue to inflate.
 Yet, Nuclear Power Plant would give more sources of energy at a cheaper price, but our
country does not have enough funds to generate this kind of energy source as well as its
maintenance. We are not ready if there were possible accidents happen considering all the residents
and regions nearby Bataan. If according to world population review, in Manila alone there are
about 1.78 million population would get affected plus those infrastructures and the economy stood
in the city, in case of a Nuclear accident, it could possibly wipe out a part in our map and we would
never recover in a span of time.

III. Conclusion

There are lots of possible options that we need to consider aside from building a nuclear
power plant. The construction of Bataan Nuclear Power plant roughly cost 2.3 billion USD that’s
equivalent to approximately 120 trillion pesos and according to the 2009 Union of Concerned
Scientist (UCS) in order to follow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety
standards, the cost would be approximately equivalent to 9 Billion dollars per unit
471,924,000,000. or 471 trillion pesos. Imagine this large amount of money that can be used to
build other kinds of safe renewable energy, and as a third world country why would our country
invest on this kind of energy if we already have a lot of options that can bring as an equivalent
amount of energy without harming the environment.

From the figure above there are 23,188, 735 megawatts of energy that can be harness from
other renewable energy with the number of 92 million houses in our country this is enough to
sustain the inadequate amount of electricity in our country if and only if the government uses the
funds appropriately. Moreover, our country lies above the border of Pacific Ring of Fire, prone to
Typhoons, and our ability to build and maintain the risk given by this kind of renewable energy is
still questionable and may only be possible if we are already a developed country.
References:

Akseer, T., Batcheler, R., & Wynn, L. (2016, April 03). Energy Crisis in the Philippines: An
Electricity or Presidential Power Shortage? Retrieved from
https://asiafoundation.org/2015/03/18/energy-crisis-in-the-philippines-an-electricity-or-
presidential-power-
shortage/?fbclid=IwAR31M68GgRj_jCVo3VK0bK3FAOQanuEzLUOWh3oP3927lUFP
c0keYbyTHIA

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (2019, June 14). The Philippines' External Debt Ratios Remain at
Prudent Levels even as External Debt Rises in the First Quarter 2019. Retrieved from:
http://www.bsp.gov.ph/publications/media.asp?id=5039&yr=2019

Camacho, T. (2017, May 24). The Controversy of Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Retrieved from:
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/camacho2/

Castaneda, C. J. (2018, August 5). Main energy sources (by region). Retrieved from
https://www.bworldonline.com/main-energy-sources-by-
region/?fbclid=IwAR2pdLDUhZAga_6HsaNzhDbCXKSbTDSq33lj3G45bC5ApAmkj4z
uwyvHKXc

Chernobyl: Facts About the Nuclear Disaster. (2019, June 20). Retrieved from
https://www.livescience.com/39961-
chernobyl.html?fbclid=IwAR3sXmglLU9XVt05ubrTzcL9_PsKP0-
VB8gO_itcFwjDsfw9Phr_xIueQgU

Kim, D. (2017, March 19). Building a nuclear power plant. Retrieved from:
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/kim-d2/

Philippine Daily Inquirer (2016, September 17). Mothballed plant cost $2.3 billion. Retrieved
from:https://technology.inquirer.net/52355/mothballed-plant-cost-2-3-billion

Philippine Statistics Authority. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://psa.gov.ph/tags/energy-

consumption?fbclid=IwAR2JDsPKdaW_iJhRFl2uHvpsSilILdExz1xmqmcJBFS-
QC0NRBo8JKGvD0ct

Phivolcs: Bataan Nuclear Power Plant on safe ground (2018, November 29). Retrieved from:
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/16/18/phivolcs-bataan-nuclear-power-plant-on-safe-
ground
Russian ambassador: Bataan nuclear power plant revival 'not possible at all'. (2014, April 4).
Retrieved from https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/04/04/Russian-ambassador-Igor-
Khovaev-Bataan-nuclear-power-plant-revival-not-possible.html?fbclid=IwAR0_D-
cuml_QQLCrtY75DcQ3irj4ehBa6a3SIi57H2UiVUBZCRYQCUsueog

Santos, G.Jr., & Palabrica, O.T. (1976). Uranium in the Philippines. Philippine Atomic Bulletin,
1(1), 3-4.

Satake, M. (2015, January 04). Philippines facing severe power shortage. Retrieved from
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Philippines-facing-severe-power-
shortage?fbclid=IwAR3X6ay0eQPA6_eB-
VLssv3nY_aXT3RamHdW97Df5CfFq36Y7lTM10oaRjg

World Population Review(n.d.), Manila Population 2019. Retrieved from:

http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/manila-population/