PH seen missing 2032 nuclear power target 

The Philippines is setting the stage for local nuclear development, but the government may miss its 2032 target to generate the first kilowatt from the technology, an official of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) said.

Speaking to reporters, William Magwood, NEA director general, said the country was “very well-positioned” for a country that has yet to energize a nuclear power plant.

“I think you have as a base the right kinds of people, the right kinds of expertise, and the right kind of leadership to be successful,” he said when asked for his assessment on the country’s nuclear readiness.

However, he said that the local market may not see its first reactor operating in the next six years, a goal set by the Marcos administration.

“It simply takes longer than that. These take years to go through, and the regulator is still very nascent. It’s getting started. So no, it won’t happen in five years or six years, but it will certainly happen within the foreseeable future,” Magwood said on the sidelines of the Philippine Nuclear Regulatory Framework Workshop.

President Marcos wants to have the country’s first nuclear facility up and running by 2032, with an initial capacity of 1,200 megawatts.

During his late father’s regime, the government built the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. However, it was never operated after construction was completed in 1986 due to allegations of corruption and issues with safety.

Department of Energy Director Patrick Aquino said the government remains “hopeful [about] getting it done,” while admitting that nuclear power projects would “take a lot of push.”

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“We are still not officially changing … We would stick to what’s in the plan, precisely to get the other agencies and the whole government [moving],” Aquino said, who is also the secretariat head of the Nuclear Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee.

“But in terms of the draft of the nuclear energy tender, we did indicate already that the delivery schedules being contemplated would start around 2038, at least in the latest version that we’ve circulated to the public,” he added.

In September last year, Mr. Marcos signed Republic Act No. 12305, or the Philippine National Nuclear Energy Safety Act.

The law creates the Philippine Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority, an independent and quasi-judicial body with the “sole and exclusive jurisdiction to exercise regulatory control.