When former president, Rodrigo Duterte, signed an executive order that allowed nuclear power plants to be considered as a source of electricity generation in the Philippines, a wave of concern swept through the minds and hearts of the security, environmental, medical, and renewable energy community.
The Department of Energy officials started to talk about the possibility of building several advanced Small Modular Reactors [SMR], including floating SMRs, all around the Philippines. We surmise that the hearts of the energy tycoons and political cronies beat faster.
The gray-haired veterans of the anti-Bataan Nuclear Power Plant campaigns, such as famous campaigner, Professor Roland Simbulan, of the Nuclear Free Philippines, will recall the hundreds of millions of dollars that were siphoned off the deal into the private accounts of Marcos cronies. Had the nuclear plant been operational, the Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption of 1991 and the many earthquakes that would have likely caused a nuclear disaster.
The real possibility of a nuclear accident is what rightly scares millions of people away from nuclear power as a source of electricity generation when there are many alternatives to renewable energy available in the Philippines.
The Philippines has the highest electricity cost in Asia thanks to energy corporations making secret, price-fixing deals with corrupt government officials. That is a form of corruption that cannot be cured
Solar and wind farms, hydro dams, geothermal, and biomass are all available and at much lower cost in comparison to nuclear, coal, oil, and gas imports. According to a report by the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation [PEMC], the few existing renewable energy [RE] projects, especially solar and wind power have already saved the Philippines 4.04 billion pesos.
Besides, renewable energy sources of electricity are free, thanks to nature. The wind blows, the sun shines and volcanic heat is always present for geothermal plants and delivered by nature without cost. They just need more investment and harnessing and they pose no danger.
The Philippines has the highest electricity cost in Asia thanks to energy corporations making secret, price-fixing deals with corrupt government officials. That is a form of corruption that cannot be cured. Can the government of Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. promote renewable energy projects without corruption and dirty deals by cronies? We hope so and all true honest Filipinos need to monitor and evaluate the projects.
Nuclear power, oil, and coal power plants are damaging the health of Filipinos and the environment and generating huge amounts of CO2 that is causing global warming and dangerous climate change. This is damaging crops and the environment. Smaller fruit harvests like mango is one of the indicators. Mangos are splitting open on the trees because of the heat.
Death-dealing radioactive gasses blown by the wind cause unknown amounts of radiation sickness, there is long-term cancer and thousands of either dead or dying slowly. Governments and industry cover up the extent of the damage to health
A strong earthquake or tsunami causing a nuclear accident at an SMR would release radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere and widespread death-dealing cancer would result. The escaping radiation would cause widespread contamination poisoning people, plants, animals, groundwater, and the ocean. Sea life will be contaminated if an SMR was to leak radiation or if the cooling water is released into the ocean. Huge areas of land would be uninhabitable for hundreds of years and thousands could eventually die from cancers.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
Incidents such as the explosion at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, Japan, on March 11, 2011, after an earthquake and tsunami; the partial meltown at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979; and the Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine in 1986 show that these accidents released radioactive materials into the atmosphere and the ocean. Death-dealing radioactive gasses blown by the wind cause unknown amounts of radiation sickness, there is long-term cancer and thousands of either dead or dying slowly. Governments and industry cover up the extent of the damage to health.
The latest SMRs are used in the USA, South Korea, and Russia. Germany is phasing out all nuclear plants due to public rejection of nuclear plants. Nuclear power plants are very dangerous in the Philippines since it sits on the Ring of Fire, an earthquake-prone area of the planet. Apart from danger from devastating earthquakes, typhoons and volcanic eruptions, there are other potential dangers—human error. The Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents were caused by inattentive engineers.
The engineers on watch failed to notice the sudden temperature rise when water pumps, cooling the core rods, stopped operating. The steel and concrete dome at Three Mile Island contained most of the radiation, but at Chernobyl, there was no dome and it exploded into the atmosphere contaminating Europe. At Fukushima, the reactor exploded into the sky, contaminating hundreds of square kilometres. Millions of people were evacuated, never to return.
When invading Russian troops entered the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine this year, they ordered all personnel to leave and assemble in a hall. Such was the Russian level of ignorance that they stupidly forced employees to stop monitoring the reactors
With almost everybody focused on their mobile phones all the time, accidents will happen due to inattentive engineers. There are hundreds of such near accidents in nuclear power plants. They are caught just in time, preventing a disaster. The incidents are never publicised.
When invading Russian troops entered the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine this year, they ordered all personnel to leave and assemble in a hall. Such was the Russian level of ignorance that they stupidly forced employees to stop monitoring the reactors. An accident could have happened at that time. When they captured the closed Chernobyl Plant, they were so stupid they dug trenches in the still highly contaminated soil, still radioactive after 37 years. Soon, those soldiers will surely get cancer.
Every Small Modular Reactor is a ticking time bomb for terrorists of whom there are many waiting to get control of a plant and blackmail a nation threatening to blow it up and contaminating the entire region. Even in Europe, security forces have intercepted communications of terrorists planning to capture a nuclear plant. Several attempts have been thwarted.
Nuclear power generation is not a safe or feasible option anywhere despite all the reassurances and hype from proponents. The greatest challenge is disposing safely of the deadly, contaminated nuclear waste, which will last for thousands of years. The Philippine Department of Energy consultant proposes burying them on a remote island. For sure, the contamination will leech into the ocean and poison the sea life and those who eat fish.
The future of the planet and the human species lies in stopping the burning of fossil fuels, halting global warming and accelerating the building of renewable energy projects. Just 30 per cent of the country’s energy supplies come from renewable generation. This has to double in the next few years if we are to save the nation from an economic meltdown with the rising cost of coal and oil, which we are experiencing everywhere today.
Father Shay Cullen
www.preda.org
