Philippines Revives Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant completed but never fueled located in Bataan, Philippines Bataan is about 60 miles west of Manila. It is located in a government land at Napot Point, Morong, Bataan. This is the only attempt of the Philippines at building a nuclear plant.

Construction of the plant began in 1976 and completed in 1984 under the regime of the Late President Ferdinand Marcos. By the time of its completion the cost had reached to $2.3 billion dollars. It is a Westinghouse light water reactor design to produce 621 megawatts of electricity.

In July last year, Pangasinan Representative Mark Cojuangco filed the bill BNPP Commission Act of 2008. In December, 2008, mThe Philippine Department of Energy had signed a memorandum of agreement with the Korea Electric Power Corp( KEPCO) to conduct a feasibility study on the possible revival of the power plant. As in any big project, there are PROS and CONS on this revival bill. It had generated a lot of discussions not only in the Philippines, but also with our group here in US, the Philippine Academy of Science and Engineering ( PASSE). I have been a member of this group since 1964. Those in favor stressed the need of electricity in the Philippines- the most expensive commodity in the island. Those against it, stressed the safety( geological), costs of revival, problems associated with disposal of nuclear wastes, and finding an alternative source of electricity which would cost less and much safer. There is definite need for a thorough feasibility studies before its actual revival and subsequent operations.

Below is an e-mail dated July 28, 2009 from Dr Kelvin Rodolfo, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago addressed to all members of PAASE. Dr Rodolfo is also a member of our PAASE group. I have his personal permission to quote him in this article.

Recently, I returned to Wisconsin from a ten-day trip to the Philippines. It began with my report to the Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering at its 29th Annual Meeting on the geological hazards of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). Following the meeting, I visited Father Fernando Loreto in Morong, Bataan, where the BNPP sits. Father Ronnie educated me about what is happenings on the ground, and ended with a tour of the nuclear facility. This was followed by fieldwork, in the rain and mud, on adjacent areas of Natib volcano with Dr. Mahar Lagmay and his volunteer group of students from National Institute of Geological Sciences and Marine Science

Institute.

There is little new I can say about the plant itself; it is old. Someone has described the control room as resembling the set of the 1960 Star Trek TV series. The engineer who guided us was not very informative about how the plant was designed to work, especially how spent fuel rods are transported and kept cool in the pool designed to hold them.

When Ferdinand Marcos and his henchmen built the plant in the 1970's, they paid very little attention to the geology of Natib volcano. This lack of proper hazard assessment continues to this day.

As Dr Lagmay reported at the PAASE meeting on July 23, an going geologic mapping has revealed much new evidence of volcanic hazards in the vicinity of Napot Point, where BNPP is located. Young lava flows had emanated from a previously unrecognized eruptive center only 5 kilometers away. Young- looking deposits from at least five pyroclastic flows, a pyroclastic surge, and lahars occur near the plant. Charcoal has been sampled from some of these deposits and submitted for carbon 14 dating that I have offered to pay for. Since the 1970's, scientists examining satellite images of Bataan and adjacent provinces have recognized several lineaments, some many kilometers long. One prominent lineation cuts southwestward across the volcano for seven kilometers before disappearing beneath the sea, passing less than a kilometer away from the plant. The rocks along the lineation display clear evidence of faulting. From the coast, the lineation continues to be manifested under the ocean by the shape of the sea floor, for a distance twice as long as its expression on land.

On March 5, the House Appropriations Committee approved P100 million to be spent on a feasibility study of the plant. Dr. Lagmay of UP-NIGS and Dr Fernando Siringan of UP-MSI applied for such funding, to coordinate their geologic mapping of Natib on land and under the sea. Their objective is to complete a detailed hazard assessment to submit to the International Atomic Energy Agency for independent review by an international panel of experts; however, as yet they have been granted no funding.

Meanwhile, both houses of the Philippine Congress prepare to debate bills mandating and funding the reopening and operation of BNPP, which enjoy overwhelming congressional support, and whose proponents would not mind the lack of proper hazard analysis before they vote.

It is well and good, and necessary, that we say No to BNPP. But perhaps we should also be saying Yes.

To the people of Morong, there are alternatives. Natib Point has good winds; what would it take to put up a small 5-kilowatt wind generator? What a great visual symbol of a working alternative to the BNPP! Numerous streams drain the steep slopes of Mt Natib; what would it take to put in a few small-scale flow-through minihydro systems to generate current during the rainy seasons?

The above is a summary of Dr Rodolfo's recent trip to the site of BNPP. Again, as I noted above, I have his permission to publish this e-mail for public comments, if you wish.

Written by David B. Katague
tagaboac@comcast.net
http://chateaudumer.blogspot.com