Aboitiz in talks with experts on compact nuclear reactors

SINGAPORE —Aboitiz Power Corp. is in talks with two of the world’s leading compact nuclear reactor experts to prepare for a future when nuclear energy will be allowed to meet the Philippines’ growing electricity requirement.

“We’re talking to NuScale and Rolls-Royce. They are into small scale nuclear reactors. Of all the technology providers, they are the most advanced,” Aboitiz Power CEO Emmanuel Rubio said in a chance interview with Inquirer on the sidelines of the launch of Aboitiz Data Innovation here.

But the key hurdle is not technology, but working on the permits and the development of a national framework for the use of nuclear energy.

President Marcos earlier indicated willingness to adopt the nuclear energy option that had been shunned by previous administrations.

United States-based NuScale and United Kingdom-based Rolls-Royce are both developing small modular reactors (SMRs), or advanced nuclear reactors with small-scale capacity.

Rubio said NuScale was talking about a capacity of 71 megawatts per module for a bundle of four modules. Rolls-Royce, a luxury automobile maker that has diversified to other new businesses, could build SMRs with about 400-MW capacity, he added.

“We believe that SMRs are really suitable for the Philippines,” Rubio said.

For proponents, nuclear energy is key to lowering energy prices in the Philippines, which has one of the highest energy costs in the region. The country has also suffered seasonal power outages for decades.

But Rubio pointed out that the country would have to first address safety standards, such as by working with the International Atomic Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose.

Years down the road

In a separate interview, Aboitiz Group president Sabin Aboitiz said the nuclear energy project may still be some 15 years down the road.

“This will be driven by Jera,” he said, referring to the Japanese energy giant that had acquired 27 percent of Aboitiz Power in 2021.

Among the world’s largest users of nuclear energy are the United States and China, with about 771,638 gigawatts (GW) and 383,205 GW of nuclear electricity supplied in 2021, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. They are followed by France (363,394 GW), Russia (208,443 GW) and South Korea (150,456).

The Philippines initiated a nuclear energy program during the term of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., father of the current president, but the now infamous Bataan Nuclear Power Plant had been mothballed following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and amid corruption issues.

For proponents like Aboitiz, SMRs may be the way to go to address supply constraints, as well as to ensure baseload capacity, especially as the world transitions away from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy.

Should it become necessary, NuScale’s SMR shuts down by itself and self-cools for an indefinite period of time, with no operator action required, no additional water and no AC or DC power needed. INQ