Daily TribunePhilippine Nuclear Research Institute Director Carlo Arcilla said the government is now reviewing which of the offers of South Korea, France, China, and the United States will be most suitable for the local situation.
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Neanderthal-minded senators recently signaled that they will throw roadblocks on the use of nuclear technology which was just consistent with their persistent obstructionist nature.
Their baseless dissent was a carryover of the hippie culture that nuclear power will destroy the world.
One of the noisemakers in the chamber said it is not the sole prerogative of the Executive to adopt an agreement with another country for nuclear technology.
Among the agenda of United States Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to the country was an agreement for the sharing of civilian nuclear technology and the possible sale of equipment such as small modular reactors that are still mostly under development.
Technicians said SMRs will fit the effort of the country to gradually discard coal power generators since the package can be installed as replacements without changing the structures.
In a Senate hearing, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute Director Carlo Arcilla said the government is now reviewing which of the offers of South Korea, France, China, and the United States will be most suitable for the local situation.
Some of the senators pontificated during the hearing that a policy on the generation of electricity through nuclear technology must be authorized by law and its legal framework should be first approved.
Such a stand means that the nuclear program will go nowhere since nothing had happened in the past 30 years in terms of a Senate action in advancing the use of nuclear technology.
The opposition uses the antiquated argument that nuclear energy is unsafe and that it is prohibited by the Constitution.
Constitutional experts, however, point to provisions of the Charter that bans the presence of nuclear weapons but not the technology that will serve the interest of the civilian population such as electricity generation.
The country already had experience in setting up a nuclear power plant, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, despite the facility being mothballed due to partisan politics.
The BNPP was all set to generate electricity until the People Power grab happened in 1986.
All projects of former President Ferdinand Marcos including the BNPP were branded evil and discarded by President Cory Aquino.
Arcilla said the BNPP, despite the long years of being idle, remains safe for use if the government decides to revive it.
The PNRI Director pointed to power plants in Slovenia, Brazil, and South Korea which are identical to BNPP and remains reliable after 40 years of operation,
Except for the absence of the fuel itself, the BNPP remains intact, according to the expert.
The BNPP is a showcase of the hubris of the bleeding hearts such as senators who maintain an anti-nuclear sentiment using baseless assumptions.
The sheer waste of having a facility, paid for by the government, just sitting in Bataan unused for three decades is too glaring to miss since Filipinos periodically suffer sudden power loss.
The aberration happens to accommodate a vociferous few.
