A lawmaker has called on the need to convene an executive-legislative coordination meeting to help craft laws on nuclear power policy in the country.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, vice chair of the Senate committee on energy, told reporters on the sidelines of the Future Energy Show last week technical experts and international lawyers would have to be consulted in obtaining legal documents and clearances to implement a nuclear power policy.
“I think step one is to have an executive-legislative coordination meeting to know what are the needed laws. It is very technical and I think it could not be done by the Congress and Senate alone. We need the technical experts to write it and we also need international lawyers to participate as this will be part of an international convention,” Gatchalian said.
He added that despite President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s intentions for the country to have an operational nuclear power plant soon, there are no proposals from the executive on a nuclear policy at the Senate energy committee.
Gatchalian added based on his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), the president wants to be careful in the country’s bid for nuclear energy production.
“The message I get from his SONA is he wants to be very careful and we need to support it first and foremost, with laws. We currently do not have a regulator for nuclear and it has to be independent and impartial since we are talking about safety,” Gatchalian said.
“Another thing is, there are many conventions and treaties that the country is yet to sign. A good example is the convention on nuclear waste as you cannot dispose it easily. These are some of the fundamental documents we need to put in place first…,” Gatchalian said.
He added the legislative process will take at least two years to be completed from the date of filing a bill.
He said only modular nuclear plants may be deployed during the Marcos administration as these need just a year or to be developed.
At present, small modular nuclear reactors are those that can produce a maximum of 300 megawatts (MW) worth of energy.
Gatchalian added nuclear power plants with capacities beyond 1,000 MW may require at least 10 years to be constructed and developed.
