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INTERNATIONAL atomic experts are expected to arrive in
Manila this month to help the government study the
feasibility of tapping nuclear energy for the country’s
power supply needs.
Science
Secretary Estrella Alabastro told Palace reporters that
experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
will be flying into the country around the middle of
January upon the request of the Philippine government,
confirming an earlier report by the BusinessMirror.
“They’re
sending experts to help us do a study which will enable
us to make a decision (on tapping nuclear energy). . .
.I think they’re coming in the middle of January,”
Alabastro said.
She said
the Department of Science and Technology only helped tap
the IAEA experts but it would be the Department of
Energy that will make the decision later on.
“They
will discuss the matter with the DOE. The DOE will make
the main decision on this because they’ll have to decide
on the composition of the energy mix of the Philippines
not only now but in the future,” Alabastro explained.
The IAEA,
which is under the United Nations, says in its web site
that it “works with UN member-states and multiple
partners to promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear
technologies.”
She said
the DOE will make its recommendation to President Arroyo
and the Cabinet once the study is completed.
Alabastro said that the government has always been “open
to the possibility” of using nuclear power in the
future, and that she herself foresees the Philippines
with nuclear-power facilities.
She
explained that even if the government decides favorably
on nuclear-power use this year, it would take 15 more
years to make the system operational, giving plenty of
time to prepare for it in terms of infrastructure and
human-resource requirements, and in explaining its
benefits to the people.
“In the
meantime we have to build up capacity. The experts on
nuclear energy have all retired. So if the decision is
made that we can go nuclear at a certain point in time,
even if it would take 15 years, 20 years from now, we
have to develop our human resources in this particular
area,” she said.
Alabastro also said that during the preparation stage,
authorities have ample time to address reservations
about nuclear-power use such as the disposal of toxic
waste.
She
noted that “technology is developing fast and even
concerns about the safety features of nuclear-power
plants had been addressed already many years back,” she
said.
She said
that the country may not have an energy crisis by 2010,
as earlier predicted by some experts, as there are
short-term solutions in sight, such as harnessing
renewable energy sources like wind power, marine
currents and others.
Last
year Mrs. Arroyo supported the proposal of Energy
Secretary Angelo Reyes to look into the use of nuclear
energy in the country to help avert a possible energy
crisis that may hit the country beginning in the Visayas
and Mindanao in 2009, and in Luzon by 2010, because of
increased power demand. |
