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ORANI, Bataan: Rep. Herminia Roman of Bataan’s First District over
the weekend said she was for the operation of the mothballed Bataan
Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) depending on the recommendation of
experts on what fuel source to utilize.
While she still could not decide on the use of
nuclear power to operate the plant, she would seriously consider
serious studies being conducted by experts and whatever proposal
will be presented.
She said that during the campaign period in the
May 2007 elections, four out of five barangay chairmen in Morong,
Bataan favored the restoration of the BNPP.
“The barangay officials wanted the plant
opened as long as safety measures are in place and after experts
commissioned by government through thorough evaluations go for
it,” the lady lawmaker said.
She said the village chiefs reasoned out that
the activation of the BNPP can help lessen the energy crisis in the
country at the same time create much-needed employment for the
sleepy mountain town.
Roman said the arrival of experts from the
United Nations-sanctioned Internal Atomic Energy Agency to inspect
the BNPP was timely. She said she has requested the Department of
Energy to conduct a feasibility study on whether the plant can still
be revived or what other fuel source can be employed.
The BNPP that was expected to generate 620
megawatts of electric power was built during the martial law regime
of the late President Ferdinand Marcos in anticipation of the power
crisis in the country.
Two poor mountain towns, Bagac and Morong,
became alive with the project and expected to gain much once it was
operational. It was, however, marred by massive street protests in
the 1970s and early 1980s.
When the strongman was toppled in 1986 after the
first EDSA people power uprising, incoming President Corazon Aquino
had the plant mothballed.
-- Ernie B. Esconde
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