The Revival of Bataan Nuclear Power Plant
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Written by Cherry
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Friday, 06 August 2010 |
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Toshiba Corp. from Japan is planning to restore the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Froilan Tampinco, the President of National Power Corp. (Napocor) said that the Japanese people are interested to rehabilitate the Bataan plant since Toshiba already manages Westinghouse Electric Co., the company that constructed the 630 megawatt nuclear plant. Toshiba is known as one of Japan's biggest suppliers of nuclear reactors and consumer electronic goods globally. In 2006, they acquired the control of Westinghouse for $5.4 billion. The nuclear plants built by Toshiba have been supplying stable power to the Tokyo Electric Power Co. since 1996. Initially, Westinghouse contracted to build the Bataan nuclear plant as a two-reactor plant for $600,000. But the company come up with only one reactor plant for $2.3 billion wherein the debt service is not yet incorporated. Since then, the nuclear plant wasn't able to operate commercially in 1980s. And it became inactive because of the rally of various environmental and cause-oriented groups.The output of this are: - The country's nuclear power development stagnated with majority of trained government
- Nuclear personnel left our country to work abroad
- Nuclear personnel skills are deteriorating
The Bataan plant was being evaluated by Napocor to help supply our country with stable power. The nuclear power facilities can produce cheap electricity and a stable supply because of the longer time it takes to diminish its fuel. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, a single uranium fuel pellet is same with the size of a fingertip. This contains more energy up to 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 1,780 pounds of coal, or 566 liters of oil. Malacanang is now studying orders on tapping the nuclear power. Tampinco added that his office is doing all the preparations by sending people to trainings. [via manilatimes.net] |
