The Department of Energy has started to look for possible locations as to where they will set up small nuclear power plants.

Among those being eyed is Palawan.

According to the DOE they started shopping for a location after the Philippines and the United States. This was after they were able to seal an agreement to facilitate cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

According to Energy Undersecretary Sharon Garin, they are looking at 15 to 16 areas in the Philippines.

These include provinces in the western part of the country like Palawan.

She noted that nuclear power is expected to be cheaper than the energy that is being produced from fossil fuels. It is also cleaner.

“Kaunti lang yung fuel mo which we have to import pero di sya volatile ang presyo at steady sya,” Garin said. 

Meralco had an agreement with a US-based firm in exploring the use of small modular reactors or SMRs or micro modular reactors or MMR.

These produce cheaper electricity from these so-called “nuclear batteries.”

“Being a cheaper source of energy globally, I would like to believe that nuclear is going to be very competitive in terms of costs,” said Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga.