It was 1976 when the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant began under the administration of

the former president Ferdinand Marcos. But even before the Marcos regime has started, it was in 1961
where the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was created with the goal to promote research
and development for nuclear pursuits in the future. Along with International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), in which the Philippines is part of, PAEC conducts a feasibility study with the help of UN Special
Fund. Consequently, two recommendations were formulated; firstly, that by early 70s, nuclear power
plant should be considered already for energy production by the government, and the second one is
that they should make a law on third party liability under the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for
Nuclear Damage.

It was under Marcos’ administration in which Philippine Atomic Regulatory and Liability Act (RA5207)
was passed, and that is the beginning of using nuclear energy in response to the 1973 oil crisis in Middle
East that led to an oil price hike in the country that also caused the citizens to protest. Another
feasibility study was conducted and, on the latter, RA6395 was passed permitting National Power
Corporation (Napocor) to develop and exercise the use of different sources, such as nuclear, for energy
production. The construction of the power plant cannot be halted. It was only on 1979 where the
establishment was stopped due to the Three Mile Accident in US and Marcos ordered to have the power
plant evaluated for safety concerns, but it was eventually resumed on 1981. The Bataan Nuclear Power
Plant costed US$2.3 billion and was anticipated to generate 621 megawatts of electricity for Luzon,
however, when Marcos was overthrown, Corazon Aquino succeeded and decided not to use it in
operation due to the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine and some defects were found.

Nowadays, the current president Rodrigo Duterte has been interested on nuclear energy to supply the
growing demand for energy in the future since the population is also increasing exponentially. In 2016,
he even ordered to conduct a study about nuclear power. Moreover, the Integrated Nuclear
Infrastructure Review (INIR) was managed at the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant which is the only
completed construction of a power plant among ASEAN countries. If this endeavor will proceed, it is
anticipated to be a hot topic for debates in the country. Although nuclear power is highly deemed as a
dangerous thing due to some accidents like in Fukushima and Chernobyl, and it is also associated to
nuclear weaponry, I support this movement of using nuclear energy. However, I think that further
research and development on this technology should be promoted before being officially operational.

Firstly, the great benefit of using nuclear power plant to generate electricity, regardless of the type of
fuel used, is its low carbon emission. Philippines is heavily relying on coal and oil as fuels to generate
electricity. And according to the report[2], electricity generation is ranked one on the major contributors
of carbon dioxide emission, contributing 41.8% on 2010 and it is also stated that it increases 3.7%
annually. Even though Philippines only contributes 0.38% global emissions, it is expected to grow as the
economy progresses as well. And according to the review of Nuclear World Assocciation[], nuclear emits
74 million tons of CO2 compared 2276 million tons of coal and 1879 million tons of oil, per 2563
terawatt hour (TWh) of electricity generated.

Secondly, the amount of electricity a nuclear power generates is enormous. Comparing it to coal and oil,
only 1 kilogram of enriched uranium is equivalent to the energy generated from 100 tons of coal and 60
tons of oil. Furthermore, nuclear energy can work synergistically with the renewables such as from wind
and solar. Wind and solar energy are unstable in electricity generation because of the changing weather.
There are times when the energy is overproduced and other times, it is underproduced. And considering
that nuclear fission can be controlled in a power plant indicates that the electricity production is also
controlled. Thus, if there is an overproduction of wind or solar energy, nuclear energy can be lowered,
or if there is underproduction of the renewables, nuclear can easily compensate to the gaps by
increasing the fission.

Lastly, I strongly believe that we should strengthen our knowledge on nuclear energy by promoting
further research and development to this technology. One major risk of this is the radioactive wastes it
produces that only decay several thousand of years. But if we are to address and research on the finding
of the resolution to the waste management, then we can be sure that it is less dangerous than the
current situation. Also, we should also start on conducting research on finding alternative fuel because
the waste of the enriched uranium fuel is used in producing weapons such as bombs. Basically, we
should research to find safer alternatives wherein it could lessen our problem on the waste
management and also, we could lead to a greener path. One alternative that I have found is using
Thorium (Th-232) as nuclear fuel[]. The fact that research about Thorium have already started on other
countries might be a good sign to the formulation of resolutions of the gaps of the conventional nuclear
power plants.

In conclusion, I believe that nuclear energy could be a great resolution in the near future to decrease our
carbon dioxide emission, thus, eradicating climate change. This can be fulfilled by the promotion of
research and development of nuclear energy, finding alternatives and concrete resolutions to the gaps
that current power plants possess. I do not think that we are already ready for the nuclear power plants
to be operational as of now but through research we could achieve this for the future of energy
production.

References

https://news.abs-cbn.com/research/12/21/09/timeline-nuclear-power-philippines

https://theaseanpost.com/article/philippines-considering-nuclear-energy

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/20/18/greenhouse-gas-emission-in-ph-rising-report

https://www.world-nuclear.org/nuclear-basics/greenhouse-gas-emissions-avoided.aspx

https://www.rosatom.ru/en/investors/benefits-of-nuclear-energy/

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/nuclear-energy/