“BNPP is not an option anymore,” said Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras at a news briefing Tuesday.
Almendras said, however, that nuclear energy remains an option in the Energy Reform Agenda that the department is now drafting.
“We are in the process of studying it. We are not closed to it and we are evaluating it,” he said, adding: "We have been told that there have been significant technological advancements relative to safety. They are now talking about 50-megawatt nuclear power plants being equally economically viable as the really large ones.”
Aside from energy security, the energy chief added that one of the factors driving the government to consider nuclear power is the fact that it can help bring down energy prices in the Philippines in the long-run, when oil prices are expected to have grown much more.
Already, a number of local government units have expressed willingness to host such a nuclear facility, according to Almendras.
Read the full article here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100727-283462/Govt-puts-foot-down-on-Bataan-nuke-plant
