MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) said it has started conducting a full feasibility study with US-based company Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. (USNC) for the installation of micro modular reactors (MMR) in the Philippines.
“On the formal feasibility study, we will need to deep dive more on the financial safety and other very important parameters as well as on the site-specific study like where do we install these micro modular reactors,” Meralco Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer Ronnie L. Aperocho said during a recent briefing.
He noted that the company had decided to proceed with the formal feasibility study following the presentation of the pre-feasibility results.
The full-scale feasibility study would take approximately six months, and they are already making progress, he added.
Meralco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan said that the pre-feasibility study identified five areas that are subject to a geological study.
The study is to ensure that the locations are safe places to build micro modular reactors, which would likely be completed before 2028.
“What’s important is that given the circumstances around this nuclear in this country, it is important that we start today with a fairly modest proof-of-concept plan, and they’re prepared to do that, whatever the size might be, 5, 10 megawatts (MW) and located in a safe place,” he said.
In November last year, Meralco and USNC signed a cooperative agreement to study the potential deployment of one or more micro modular reactor energy systems in the country.
Under the deal, USNC conducted a pre-feasibility study for four months.
“Our goal is to be able to start an operational plant perhaps in one of the island provinces to produce power and demonstrate that it’s a safe mode of producing power,” Mr. Pangilinan said.
An MMR unit or “nuclear battery” can “safely and reliably” provide up to 45 megawatt thermal of high-quality heat, delivered into a centralized heat storage unit, according to Meralco.
“One or more MMR nuclear batteries combine their heat in the heat storage unit, from where electric power or superheated steam can be extracted through conventional means to meet a wide range of power requirements, from tens to hundreds of MW,” the power distributor has said.
Meralco is sending five engineers to a two-year graduate program abroad this year to develop skilled professionals and help the country develop local nuclear energy experts.
The scholarship is part of the company’s Filipino Scholars and Interns on Nuclear Engineering program that was launched in September last year.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
