Marcos Administration to Work With U.S. Nuclear Power Firms to Address Local Outages
During his five-day working visit to Washington, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. met with top officials from various U.S.-based nuclear energy firms to bring nuclear energy to the Philippines in light of recent power crises.
Marcos is reportedly looking at "cutting-edge" micro nuclear fuel technology to address the Philippines' power crisis. This also comes around the same time during power outages in Occidental Mindoro.
The President talked to execs from U.S.-based firm Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, a leading vertical integrator of nuclear technologies and services. Ultra Safe Nuclear hopes to bring clean and reliable nuclear energy with the micro modular reactor (MMR) energy system to the country.
This fourth-generation nuclear energy system is considered the "first fission battery" in commercialization, offering safe and cost-effective electricity to consumers. The MMR is being licensed in Canada and the United States at the moment.
Since his campaign, Marcos has been adamant about having at least one nuclear power plant to "produce cheap electricity" for Filipinos.
We continue in our effort to provide cost-effective and clean energy solutions to our country.
— Bongbong Marcos (@bongbongmarcos) May 1, 2023
Our meeting with NuScale today builds on the discussions we had in New York last year, solidifying our commitment and bringing us closer to building more efficient and sustainable… pic.twitter.com/5Pnhjf0suE
ALSO READ:
Is It Time to Power Up the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant?
Apart from Ultra Safe Nuclear, Marcos also spoke to Oregon-based firm NuScale Power Corporation. The publicly traded American company designs and markets small modular reactors (SMRs). These SMRs, which are worth up to $7.5 billion, are expected to be built in the Philippines as another way to mitigate the power shortage in various provinces.
Marcos last caught up with the executives of NuScale Power in September 2022. The proposal for the said project was put forward by NuScale and local partner Enrique Razon Jr.'s Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. This technology has secured approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and is considered the "first of its kind" in many ways. The said agency had even approved the country's first small reactor, NuScale's 50-megawatt (MW) advanced light-water SMR, as well.
What makes the technology groundbreaking is its size and cost-effectiveness, producing low-carbon electricity at roughly a third of the rate of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear facilities. Nuscale Power will first be conducting a study to identify which areas are capable of being SMR sites.
.png)