Press Release
August 21, 2007

Zubiri opposes move to use nuclear
power for the country's energy needs

Sen. Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri asked the Department of Energy "if it is now implementing a nuclear power agenda and abandoning renewable energy."

He warned that "short-term benefits of lower electricity cost should not overshadow other concerns about nuclear energy."

"In the long run, nuclear energy has much more expensive costs in terms of public health and environmental degradation. On the other hand, renewable energy is clean and much cheaper in the long run."

Zubiri reminded the energy department that its own Renewable Energy group and Rural Power Program assessment of electricity demand nationwide recommend the harnessing of renewable energy resources over other energy resources.

Zubiri cited the recent earthquake in Japan where the largest nuclear plant had to shut down operations due to radiation leaks. "The Philippines is situated in the ring-of-fire of the Pacific and earthquake is almost a daily occurrence. We cannot afford to spend billions of pesos on nuclear power plant and after a strong earthquake expose our citizens to radiation leaks in addition to the wastes that nuclear plants generate after the uranium fuel has been spent."

"Nuclear waste disposal is now the biggest problem of France, the largest nuclear power user in the world, and they have to dump their nuclear wastes in the French Polynesia which created global outcry."

He explained that initial expenses for setting up the RE systems are high but "will taper off in the long-run as the resources are virtually free." Geothermal and hydro generation plants use resources owned by the state while solar and wind power plants use no fuel at all. Biomass is gaining more adherents in crop and livestock farms and other fuel-processing plants like ethanol using bagasse for self-generated consumption.

Studies submitted by the energy department to his office show that renewable energy use generates savings as high as P67 billion ($1.23 Billion) in a computation placing total benefits at P227 billion ($4.12 Billion) and total costs at P159 Billion ($2.89 Billion).

The energy department inventory of our RE resources are as follows: wind resources (over 10,000 square kilometers with 76,600 Megawatt (MW) potential installed capacity); micro-hydro systems (500 kW potential capacity in Northern Luzon and Mindanao ); solar (5 to 5.1 kWh per sq. meter per day annual potential average). Mini-hydro potential capacity of 1,784 MW from 888 sites; ocean energy resource potential capacity of 170,000 MW; and biomass (bagasse) total potential of 235 MMBFOE (million metric barrel fuel oil equivalent).

"More than the monetary savings, renewable energy does not have health and security risks associated with nuclear power like radioactive leaks from operation and misuse of spent fuel."

Studies show that nuclear power also has additional costs called "back-end costs unique only to nuclear plants consisting of storage costs for spent fuel or disposal in waste repository, decommissioning of nuke plant and final waste disposal."

"Nuclear waste disposal has been the problem of many countries using nuclear power because of its high risk and potential health hazards to their citizens."

Zubiri said "our search for lower-priced electricity should not be used to hide the threats to public health and environment from nuclear power."

Several laws enabled the Marcos administration to set up the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in Morong, Bataan which was mothballed by the Aguino government and for which the Philippines has paid $1.2 Billion in debt.

Zubiri is on a three-day working-visit in California , USA to study wind and solar power plants in the area. He stated that " California has slowly started shifting away from nuclear and conventional energy resources and has gone full blast to wind, solar and tidal wave energy resources. All 100% clean, 100% safe and 100% renewable."

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