China has offered the Philippines an opportunity to capitalize on its technology either to revive the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) or build a new small modular nuclear reactor (SMR).
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), the government has received such an offer from the Chinese government under a proposed nuclear energy cooperation.
“We recently received an offer for a nuclear energy cooperation from China after the President’s state visit. It is a general nuclear energy cooperation which may involve the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) or a conventional SMR,” said Michael Sinocruz, DOE director for energy policy and planning at the sidelines of the Powertrends 2023 International Business Forum in Makati City on Tuesday.
Sinocruz said the cooperation may be under a government-to-government deal although still in the early stages of negotiations and unlike the nuclear energy cooperation with the United States whose cover and extent of assistance is now being discussed.
In November last year, the government and the US started discussing a civil nuclear cooperation agreement which, when enforced, will provide legal basis for American exports of nuclear equipment and material to the Philippines.
The agreement is consistent with the country’s pursuit of so-called clean energy and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons policy.
Sinocruz said the development of nuclear energy projects in the country, even if only SMRs, is dependent on how fast the government can address the obvious lack of infrastructure requirements.
Nuclear reactors are considered SMR if they produce no more than 300 megawatts (MW) worth of energy.
“We need to have the legal and regulatory (requirements) in place. Our human resource must also be okay as this is needed to operate and maintain SMRs. The good thing is the University of the Philippines right now is deliberating on the revival of nuclear engineering as a course,” Sinocruz added.
Sinocruz also said the DOE is updating its 2050 energy planning roadmap which includes the impact of nuclear energy in the energy mix, in terms of reducing carbon emission and costing, among others.
“So there will be several scenarios: We can include BNPP if that can still be rehabilitated or we can build a new one, conventional, which is about 600 MW and above in capacity and a scenario wherein we can tap SMRs,” Sinocruz said.
The DOE has identified 13 possible sites for conventional nuclear power plants that include Bataan and up to 16 sites for SMRs.
