The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it will now pursue a pre-feasibility study with American firm Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. for the development of micro-modular reactor (MMR) nuclear energy technology in the country.
The company is hopeful of putting up a power plant utilizing such technology before 2028.
Ultra Safe currently has MMR reactors with capacities between 5 and 15 megawatts.
“On the formal feasibility study, we will need to deep dive more on the financial, safety and other very important parameters as well as on the site-specific study like where do we install this micro modular reactors,” said Ronnie Aperocho, Meralco executive vice president and chief operating officer, at the sidelines of the company’s briefing earlier this week.
“Along the way, we always work with the policymakers, especially the Department of Energy. We’re very transparent about the studies that we’re doing and they’re part of the next steps, especially on the site selection,” Aperocho added.
Meanwhile, Manuel Pangilinan, Meralco chairman and chief executive officer, said the pre-feasibility study nominated five particular areas. But these are subject to further studies, particularly geological surveys to ensure safety.
“Our goal is to be able to start an operational plant perhaps in one of the island provinces to produce power and demonstrate that it’s a safe mode of producing power. We hope to do that certainly well before 2028,” Pangilinan said.
Apart from the conduct of formal pre-feasibility studies, Meralco said it is also pushing efforts to increase the number of qualified personnel for nuclear energy in the Philippines.
“…We have to train our engineers and engineers outside Meralco on nuclear power.
You see, the supply of nuclear engineers in this country is quite limited, very limited.
We have to populate the nuclear engineers in this country from a construction and operating standpoints,” Pangilinan said.
Last October, Meralco launched a nuclear education program that supports nominees from the government as well as the company’s and third-party engineers who can be educated abroad in the United States, Canada, France and other places where nuclear technology is available.
Aperocho said that Meralco is already sending the first batch of their nuclear scholars in the US at the University of Illinois in Chicago this August or September.
