“Let’s work on the science,” said Dr. Carlo Arcilla, director of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute and a strong advocate for the reopening of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to help lower the rising cost of fuel and electricity.
Arcilla said debates on the pros and cons of nuclear power should “be evidence-based.”
Nuclear energy could offer the cleanest source of baseload power at lesser cost, Arcilla said in an interview with the Department of Science and Technology’s DOSTv’s ExperTalk Online program.
The country’s energy mix is composed of 60 percent coal which is imported mostly from Indonesia and 20 percent from the Malampaya gas field, he said.
Nuclear can help provide the 20 percent presently supplied by the Malampaya gas field where reserves are fast decreasing, he added.
“Renewables and nuclear can complement each other,” Arcilla pointed out. “The problem is, wind and solar depend on the status of the weather. To add to that, it has only 30 percent capacity factor unless you have expensive battery.”
Solar energy requires one hectare of land to produce one megawatt, and this will become more challenging since the Philippines is an archipelagic country, he continued.
“Nuclear is more of a baseload energy,” he explained. “Meaning, it is more reliable due to its continuous production of energy. It could provide backup for wind and solar.”
