Teodoro: Time for RP to go nuke but not Bataan plant

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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MANILA, Philippines—With many parts of the country suffering through rotating power outages, administration standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro Jr. on Friday said it was time for government to seriously think about developing nuclear power to prepare the country for a power crisis in the next 50 years.

Speaking at a forum with defense reporters, Teodoro suggested a two-fold method for government to deal with the country’s deteriorating supply of energy.

“One, deal with the current shortfall in power supply by facilitating power barges and big users of electricity with whatever they need to self-generate,” said Teodoro, who resigned as defense secretary in November to pursue his presidential candidacy.

The other way is to explore the use of nuclear energy to address power shortages in the next 50 years, he said.

“We have to look that far ahead so that every year, we could put in the additional infrastructure necessary to create generating capacity,” Teodoro said.

Teodoro said hydroelectric power plants may no longer be reliable because of the changes in climatic patterns.

A prolonged dry spell brought about by the El Niño weather phenomenon has reduced the generating capacity of hydroelectric power plants in Luzon and Mindanao by 80 to 90 percent, resulting in rotating brownouts lasting for as long as 12 hours.

“We must seriously study nuclear power,” said Teodoro.

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Finally, a candidate with full understanding of the situation. Too bad he may not win the election because of the baggage he is carrying with GMA.

He should also look into geothermal, wind and solar. The Philippines cannot rely on a single source of power.

And I agree, the BNPP should be demolished or converted. Not just because of the political issue, but it isn't really the safest part of the country to put a Nuclear Power Plant in.

Read the full article here.