An eight-member team from the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will conduct a review of the mothballed 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) northwest of Manila to aid the Philippines in deciding whether to pursue nuclear power generation, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said.

Reyes said the group flew in Sunday and would visit the BNPP site in Morong town in Bataan province, this Tuesday.

An initial report will be submitted to the Department of Energy by Friday, he said.

Led by the group’s nuclear power division director Akira Omoto, the team’s members are Asia and the Pacific section head Zhang Jing, nuclear power division technical officer Ki Sig Kang, nuclear safety and installations division technical officer David Greaves, and nuclear safety and security division technical officer Eric Weinstein.

Also in the group are consultant and legal infrastructure expert John Rames from Australia and consultants and nuclear power experts Jose Brayner Costa Mattos from Brazil and Ioan Rotaru from Romania.

Reyes said the group would make a recommendation on what would be the best way to go: to rehabilitate and re-fire the BNPP, to convert it to a plant that uses another type of fuel, or to junk it altogether.

“In other words, they will not recommend to us to either open it or not open it, or rehabilitate or not rehabilitate,” he said. “They will just advise us on what we have to do to arrive at that decision. But we are not compelled to accept any of their recommendations.”

He noted that the IAEA was formed to assist in technology transfer and advise countries considering nuclear power generation.

The IAEA could also find out if a country is violating any safety or environmental standards related to nuclear power generation, he added.

Reyes said that at present the government was making initial studies on whether or not it should again consider nuclear power production.

“I’m not ready to commit to anything other than studying” that possibility, he said. “What we are saying is to keep our options open -- get and train people in nuclear technology. What we don’t want is a power shortage situation.” Abigail L. Ho; edited by INQUIRER.net