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Advantages of Nuclear Power Plant in the Philippines

Thesis statement: Having a nuclear power plant in the
Philippines will give beneficial effects

Mendoza, Justin
Monteagudo, Lawrence
Nava, Hans
Orido, Andrew

Outline
I.Introduction
A.Present situation
B.Thesis statement
II.Definition of Nuclear Powerplant
A.Definition
III.Process of Nuclear Powerplant
A.Process
IV.Benefits
A.Environment
B.Economic
C.Reliability

V.Conclusion

As the 12th-largest nation in the world, the Philippines has a population of more than 100
million people spread over 7,107 islands, presenting several electricity infrastructure challenges.
Currently, the country is facing growing concerns over resource adequacy in its power sector, as
the nation is challenged to add supply quickly enough to keep up with growing demand. In late
2014, Philippine president Benigno Aquino requested emergency powers from the Philippine
Congress to enable the government to lease 600 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity and to
take other measures to prevent power outages in Luzon, the largest island region in the Southeast
Asian nation. (http://www.eia.gov todayinenergy)/

The Philippines is heading into a severe summer power crisis and its not because of a
typhoon or any disaster, its simply because there isnt enough supply. Summer is also the season
of electric power shortages, as homes and offices use air-conditioning units longer than usual.
According to Energy Secretary (Carlos Jericho Petilla) For the ordinary Filipinos, frustrations
will pile up: temperatures will hit extremes in the summer months, water relying on electrical
pumps will run out, train schedules will be interrupted because of insufficient power supply, and
so on and so forth. The picture for 2016 is even worse. Demand is expected to grow for the
obvious reason that the economy is expanding. Aside from the maintenance shutdowns of plants,
committed power plant projects that were expected to come on stream in 2016 have been
delayed. The El Nio phenomenon is also a threat to hydropower supply. The Malampaya natural
gas facility off Palawan will also go on scheduled maintenance in March to April, affecting
supply of fuel to power plants in Luzon.The projected power demand in Luzon in 2016 is 9,011
megawatts (MW), higher than this years demand of 8,717 MW, according to Petilla. There will
be a deficit of 200 MW next year.
According to (Jell,Scott 2015) Electricity demand in Luzon is expected to peak around
May at about 10,300 megawatts to 10,400 MW, possibly rising to as high as 10,500 MW when
factoring in outages.DOE documents showed that the available capacity for that period would be
about 10,500 MW and only one committed project might go online before peak demand kicks
in.The P3.5-billion, 20-MW Maibarara geothermal plant in Sto. Tomas town, Batangas province,
is expected to augment grid capacity this month. This means that supply will be very tight.In the
Visayas, peak demand is expected to hit 1,781 MW around May before tapering off sometime in
June and rising again in September onward.While available and committed capacity is expected
to reach 1,833 MW within the year, a big chunk (132 MW) may go online in June onwards,

leaving the grid with a deficit of about 80 MW sometime in May.Mindanaos situation is the
worst, already having a 200-MW deficit. Peak demand is expected to reach 1,760 MW this
summer up to July, but it may breach 1,800 MW come December. So far, available and
committed capacity has stood at 1,536 MW, which means the deficit could be between 224 MW
and 264 MW.And it gets worse. Excluding the output from power plants that are committed to
come online, the deficit for 2015 for the entire country will rise to 711 MW. This includes 406
MW for Mindanao, which will still show a shortfall of 173 MW even when the promised
facilities are on-stream.Yet, it cannot be said that the present power situationa peak deficit of
323 MW for the Visayas and Mindanao for this year alonewas unexpected.
The nation's power sector has been through years of transformation. The National Power
Corporation (NPC) once had a monopoly on generation and transmission. Following political
regime change in 1986, the Philippine economy experienced a series of reforms, including
electric power sector restructuring. Additional emphasis on privatization and restructuring
followed, culminating in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA), which
required functional unbundling of NPC's generation and transmission activities. The EPIRA also
established a wholesale electricity spot market to enable wholesale competition through meritorder dispatch of generators and market-based pricing. On the retail side, distribution to
customers traditionally was mainly through investor-owned utilities, such as the Manila Electric
Company (MERALCO). In 2013, the implementation of retail competition and open access
(RCOA) allowed qualified customers to choose alternate electricity suppliers. Despite these
restructuring efforts, the Philippines continues to face power supply challenges, and Filipinos
pay some of the highest electricity prices in southeast Asiaissues that have been cited as risks
to foreign investment. (http://coe.upd.edu.ph/2013/10/29/looming-power-crisis-the-bnpp-option/)

In addition to the government's short-term emergency actions, the Philippines will

continue to expand its electricity generation capacity to improve system reliability and keep up
with economic and population growth. The three main island regions of Luzon, Visayas, and
Mindanao each have distinct generation profiles. In the northern part of the country, Luzon's
capacity is mainly powered by fossil fuels, with anticipated capacity additions of more than 500
MW, most of which will be coal-fired. Visayas, in central Philippines, currently relies heavily on
its geothermal resources, but has plans to add 300 MW of coal capacity by 2017. In the south,
Mindanao relies heavily on its hydropower resources, with plans for both additional hydropower
capacity and additional coal-fired generation to increase system reliability. Given the looming
power crisis facing a projected high economic growth, our group is pushing for the activation of
the mothballed Bataan nuclear power plant because we think having nuclear power plant in the
Philippines will give beneficial effects.

A nuclear power plant is a facility for the production of electricity using nuclear energy.
Its operation is similar to a thermic power plant. The difference is that the power source from a
nuclear plant is nuclear fission of certain atoms while in a thermic power plant the heat source
(thermal energy) from burning of one or more fossil fuels like coal, natural gas , fuel As in a
conventional thermal power plant the heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine
connected to a generator that produces electricity. The thermal energy that nuclear power uses to
generate electricity is generated by a nuclear reactor. Within the nuclear reactor fission reactions
in chain occur in controlled way. The element to fission is natural uranium or enriched uranium.
Enriched uranium is natural uranium with a proportion of the isotope uranium-235 higher. In
addition to the reactor, a nuclear power plant always consists of a steam turbine, an alternator,

two or three -primary, secondary, and tertiary- circuits and one or more cooling towers condenser
fluid, usually water. The overall efficiency is between 30% and 40%. It is usually considered the
operating lifetime of a nuclear power plant in about thirty years. (http://nuclearenergy.net/definitions/nuclear-power-plant.html)
In a nuclear power plant, energy is extracted from the nucleus of atoms through its
division (nuclear fission) since breaking release the binding energy within the atom linking the
particulates. Nuclear fission is caused by artificial and controlled manner. In this, a large atom of
a chemical element fires a neutron, a small particle at a certain speed, which breaks the atom
(breaking its core, formed by neutrons and protons linked together by highly energetic links) in
an exothermic nuclear reaction, ie energy is released as heat (thermal energy). To achieve that
energy obtained be greater than the energy used, it is necessary that nuclear reactions be chain
reactions. Thus, although much energy is needed to start the nuclear chain reaction, once the
reaction is initiated not much energy is required to maintain it, and there comes a time in which
the energy obtained is higher than the energy used. To achieve this it is necessary that the largest
chemical element (called heavy, with a high atomic mass) be also radioactive. The element used
often is a rare isotope of uranium. This is done in the nuclear reactor, wher also they pose tubes
with a fluid called refrigerant, which is responsible for transporting the heat (thermal energy)
extracted from the uranium from the reservoir, cooling it. This thermal energy is used to heat
water to boiling, and water vapor pressure is used to move the blades of a turbine, thus we have
transformed the thermal energy to mechanical energy. Then, the electric generator (or alternator)
converts this mechanical energy to electrical energy. (http://nuclear-energy.net/how-nuclearpower-plant-work.html)

Nuclear power plant have many benefits. First, nuclear power plant is environmentally
friendly., these power plant emit lower greenhouse gases. Thus, these power plant isolate its
waste from the environment, requires a relatively small amount of land and they do not emit any
gases that are largely responsible for greenhouse effect. This means that we must not have/ build
power plant that emit greenhouse gases because, the impacts of increasing concentrations of
greenhouse gases, has been theorized that they may lead to an increase in average temperature of
the Earths surface.
Second, nuclear power plant support local economies. construction of a new nuclear
power plant creates up to 3,500 jobs. Operation of a nuclear plant generates 400 to 700
permanent jobs. The annual electricity sale of a nuclear power plant is approximately 453 million
dollars. An average nuclear plant pays about 16 million dollars of taxes annually. Imagine that
amount of money if we have nuclear power plants in our country. We can use that amount of
money to build schools, roads, and other infrastructure.
Lastly, nuclear power plant is reliable. They can produce energy continuously in any kinds
of weather. The energy that these power plant produce is better than fossil fuels. The supply of
these energies is going to last much longer than fossil fuels. This means that if we have nuclear
power plant in our country we will not depend on fossil fuels anymore. Thus. We will have
massive energy reserve. In effect , we will not experience rotational brownouts.We will have
lower electricity. We will not be affected

by endless oil price hike, and we can sell these

energies to other countries.

Our country will have many benefits if we have nuclear power plants. These nuclear power
plants will help us save our environment. There will be a growth in our economy with the help of
these power plants. And having these power plants will help our fellowmen to have jobs and

there will be less indigent families. Thus, we will not experience rotational brownouts anymore
because we can produce our own electricity.

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