President Duterte recently signed an Executive Order, adopting the National Position for a Nuclear Energy Program, allowing the country to tap on nuclear power as a viable power source along with alternative energy resources.
The EO states that the Philippines need to ensure that it has a reliable, secure, sustainable, quality, and affordable electric supply, including sufficient reserve so that it can achieve its sustained growth targets. Given that objective, the government is looking into nuclear power.
The Nuclear Energy Program is a process that starts with the inclusion of nuclear power in the energy mix based on a prefeasibility study on the need for and viability of nuclear power. It includes the development of nuclear power infrastructure and encompasses the planning and construction, operational, commercial, and post-operational stages of nuclear power plants.
The government sees the Nuclear Energy Program as one of the solutions to address rising energy demands, could economic growth via increased productivity and dynamic spillover effects on related industries, as well as help minimize the possible trade-offs between emissions and the environment since life cycle emissions from nuclear power chains are comparable with the best renewable energy chains and several orders magnitude lower than fossil fuel chains. Nuclear power can also mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has a strong potential to decarbonize the power sector, the EO states.
The EO also gave the Nuclear Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee (NEP-IAC additional functions, including the responsibility to make recommendations on the use and viability of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) and the establishment of other facilities for the utilization of nuclear energy.
The Department of Energy (DOE), on the other hand, is mandated to develop and implement the Nuclear Energy Program as part of the Philippine Energy Plan, and coordinate with and assist the NEP-IAC in the performance of its functions.