07 April 2010
The national board of the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers (PSME) approved, during its 4th national board meeting last April 2, the start of a national debate on nuclear power plants (NPP).
The PSME, holder of Certificate No.I-APO-005 granted by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), is the Accredited Professional Organization (APO) for the country’s mechanical engineering profession and currently has 64 active chapters located all over the country and in the Middle East. Its national board, currently headed by national president Eng’r. Buddy Virata, is composed of the following: Eng’rs. Rudy Sultan, George Yorobe, Lorenzo Larion, Joseph David, Sonny Lopez, Rey Cruz, Pablito Ocampo, Dindo Nicolas, Ely Bagtasus, Rey Trinidad, Dean Cansino, Ross Bucoy, Vir Montero, Mon Aguilos, and immediate past national president Rene Florencio (as ex-officio board member).
The seeming heightened interest in NPPs - given the government’s expressed intention to make it part of the country’s future energy mix, the revival efforts regarding the BNPP, the ongoing Fukushima I problem, the current high cost of power, environment concerns, etc – has prompted the “Society” to launch such a debate. It will primarily give mechanical engineers, particularly its members, a venue through which they could share personal expertise, relevant information or knowledgeable opinion regarding the subject matter. Other disciplines, as well as other concerned agencies or parties, would of course be encouraged to participate and ventilate their views. The idea is to have involvement from as many knowledgeable people as possible and in the process properly educate as many members of the population as possible regarding nuclear energy.
An educated population would then, hopefully, be able to intelligently and objectively participate in the decision process and help bring about a move that would result to beneficial effects for both the current and future stakeholders of the country.
Offhand, I foresee various issues that will be touched on with respect to a NPP debate under a Philippine setting. Among them cost (plant, generation), safety (accidents, waste fuel, earthquakes, expertise), environment (green house gasses, radioactive contamination), infrastructure, national discipline, alternative renewable energy sources, and here are perhaps a lot more. But never the less, it is probably best that all possible issues are brought out before a decision on whether or not our country would go nuclear, is finalized.
If I may just share a researched brief “appetizer” on the subject matter - the idea of nuclear energy was born out of “…nearly five decades of work on the science of radioactivity and the elaboration of new nuclear physics that described the components of atoms” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nuclear_fission ). However, the harnessing of this energy only started to become a reality with the discovery of “nuclear fission” in 1938 by German and Austrian scientists, and the confirmation of the possibility of generating a sustained “nuclear chain reaction” in 1939 by Frederic Joliot-Curie (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nuclear_power). With the advent of WWII the development of its technology was pursued for purely military reasons resulting in the invention of the atomic bomb. It’s only after the war that its use was focused towards the development of nuclear reactors for the generation of electricity.
Commercial nuclear energy started in the 1950s with the operation in 1956 of the first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall, in Shefield, England with a capacity of 50 MW. Installed capacity grew rapidly afterwards and through the 60s so that by 1970, it was about 100 gigawatts (GW), and by the late 1980s 300GW. In the ensuing period, growth slowed down, increasing capacity to only 366GW by 2005. Available records indicate that as of early 2010, there were 436 operating nuclear power plants in 31 countries. The biggest producer of nuclear power is the USA with 104 plants supplying 806.2 terra watt hours (TWh) or approx 19% of their annual power demand. However France has the highest percentage usage of nuclear power, with 425.8 TWh or approximately 79% of their annual demand supplied by 59 plants.
Those who might be interested in the debate may access it through the PSME official website, http://psmenow.org , by clicking on the “NPP Debate” icon which will be available on or before April 18.
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