Dominguez backs plan to revive nuke plant

The head of the Duterte administration’s economic team is backing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) proposal to possibly revive the mothballed Bataan nuclear power plant.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III last week said that tapping nuclear power would help further cut the cost of doing business in the country, especially of electricity, which was among the highest in the region.

“We have to have all the safety measures, but I think it’s something that we should really consider,” Dominguez told reporters.

Last week, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi was quoted as saying that the DOE was pushing for nuclear as among the energy sources to ensure energy security as the agency already finished a draft national policy on nuclear power last year.

Cusi cited that nuclear energy would not only provide a quality but also an affordable source of electricity.

Dominguez said the government might have to replace the mothballed plant’s old instrumentation before running it, but he has yet to know how much doing so would cost.

“That is something that we should consider if we want to bring down power rates—it might be a good investment [because] it’s already there, 600 megawatts,” he said.

But Dominguez acknowledged that using nuclear power might be “dangerous” to operate so “the safety measures have to be in place.”

“I want to encourage Mr. Cusi to really study it well, and we will support him as much as we can if it’s safe and if it makes economic sense,” according to Dominguez.