"Some 19 months after ordering a study to determine the feasibility of introducing nuclear energy into the Philippines’ power generation mix, President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the adoption of a “national position for a nuclear energy program” to address the country’s projected phaseout of coal-fired plants. (The Philippines participated in last November’s COP26 conference, where it affirmed its commitment “to shift away from the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel.”)
According to Executive Order 164, signed by Duterte on February 28 and made public last week, “The competitive position of nuclear energy is recognized, and the experience of highly developed countries shows that nuclear power can be a reliable, cost-competitive, and environment-friendly energy source.”
The order instructs the country’s Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and implement a nuclear program as part of the Philippine Energy Plan. In addition, the order calls on the Nuclear Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee, which carried out the feasibility study, to look into resurrecting the never-fueled Bataan nuclear power plant."