---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: [email protected]> Date: Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 7:40 PM Subject: Nuclear folly marches on To: kt @yahoo.com>, [email protected], [email protected]
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2009/feb/16/yehey/opinion/20090216opi2.html Nuclear folly marches on By Dan Mariano Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo of Pampanga recently said that a bill seeking to commission the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) in Morong, Bataan, is as good as passed. The chairman of the House energy committee reported that the bill already has the support of 190 out of 238 congressmen. While the proponents of nuclear energy in Congress have closed ranks behind the bill authored by Rep. Mark Cojuangco of Pangasinan, their consensus has also roused widespread opposition—and not just from the usual green militants. Interestingly, even an aide of the Pampanga representative's mother has voiced his misgivings about Cojuangco's proposal. Former Sen. Heherson Alvarez, now President Arroyo's adviser on climate change, has warned that commissioning the BNPP would be "fraught with danger." Work on the light-water reactor began in 1976. It was initially projected to cost $500 million. However, by the time the Westinghouse-built BNPP was completed eight years later, the final bill had zoomed to $2.3 billion—thanks in no small measure to the kickbacks reportedly extracted by officials and "cronies" of the Marcos dictatorship. Even before he was toppled, the dictator himself had held the BNPP's commissioning in abeyance after a fact-finding panel reported numerous concerns about the plant's long-term safety. Those concerns remain. In 1991, Bataan—like many parts of Luzon—was rocked by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in nearby Zambales province. Proponents pointed out that the BNPP withstood the cataclysmic event, and was thus shown to be safe. The proponents, however, conveniently failed to mention that the nuclear plant was already mothballed by then—and nobody knows for sure if its reactor and other components would have endured the tremors that accompanied the eruption had the BNPP been in full operation. Faulty forecast Cojuangco's bill followed other bids to commission the BNPP. This time, projections of a severe power shortage by 2010—made by the Department of Energy (DOE)—have been trotted out to justify the congressman's proposal. According to Greenpeace, the Energy department's demand forecasting has frequently been criticized by experts as faulty, projecting power shortages even with existing supply gluts. OK, let us assume the Energy department forecast were accurate. Just the same, the environmental group points out, if now is the time to build more power plants then this is also the best opportunity for the Philippines to fully harness its massive renewable energy potential. With the passage of the Renewable Energy Law last year, Greenpeace pointed out, the DOE's scenario offers the perfect occasion for the entry and development of new and renewable energy technologies, which can strategically displace polluting power plants—and rule out nuclear. In 2008, Korean Electric Power Co. (Kepco) was asked by the government's National Power Corp. to conduct a two-year study on the feasibility of commissioning the BNPP. But even without the Kepco report, the congressmen seem to be already convinced that nuclear energy is the way to go if the country is to avoid massive outages. In House Bill 4631, Cojuangco estimates that rehabilitating the Bataan plant would cost some $1 billion, which is not cheap for a rehabilitated plant, according to Greenpeace, as the figure is approximately the cost of a new power plant. The Pangasinan lawmaker proposes that half f the cost for the Bataan plant rehab be sourced from an additional charge to consumers by utility companies while the other half will come from loans. It would be a double-whammy for Filipinos. They will be subjected to higher electric bills—in a country that already has the highest power rates in Asia, next to Japan. They will also have to pay more taxes just so the government could launch its nuclear folly. Besides, expert opinion and our own experience show that the final bill for the Bataan plant rehab is bound to overshoot Cojuangco's $1-billion estimate. Worldwide, the cost of building a nuclear reactor is consistently two to three times higher than the nuclear industry estimates, Greenpeace reported. In India, the country with the most recent experience of nuclear reactor construction, completion costs for the last 10 reactors have, on average, been 300 percent over budget. In Finland, the construction of a new reactor is already 1.5 billion euros over budget. In contrast, power generators running on sunlight, wind, water currents, biomass and geother-mal heat to produce electricity cost so much less and present few, if any, of the dangers inherent in nuclear energy. Renewable energy sources are mostly free for the taking. They have little or no fuel input and their competitive advantage remain relatively constant no matter how much the market price of oil, gas, coal and uranium changes. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Center for Good Governance" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/center-for-good-governance?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
