Officials of NuScale, a top nuclear energy firm based in the US, meet with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and other key Philippine officials to express interest in investing in the Philippines. (PCO photo)
A leading nuclear energy company from the US has expressed interest in investing in the Philippines, following a meeting with President Ferdinand Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in Washington.
NuScale Power Corporation is anticipated to invest between $6.5-7.5 billion in the Philippines to supply the country with 430MW of energy by 2031.
During the meeting, NuScale Power Corporation, based in Oregon, announced plans to conduct a study to locate a site in the Philippines for its small nuclear power system, which is considered safe, modular, and scalable.
Marcos Jr. welcomed the company’s plans as he said the Philippines had a “shortfall in power supply.”
“We need everything. We just have to have everything and this new technology is something,” he said.
NuScale Executive Vice President for Business Clayton Scott expressed confidence that the company’s small modular reactor technology, the first and only one of its kind to receive design approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, would “perform as expected.”
NuScale has ongoing clean energy projects in Utah, Romania, Indonesia, and Poland.
In his first State of the Nation Address, Marcos Jr. said he wanted to review the Philippines’ strategy in building nuclear power plants, vowing to comply with the regulations set by the International Atomic Energy Agency in building nuclear power plants.
The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which cost more than $2 million, was the country’s only nuclear power plant.
Completed under the Marcos Sr. regime, it was never fueled nor used due to safety concerns. After Marcos was overthrown and in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, the succeeding administration of President Corazon Aquino mothballed the Bataan plant. John Ezekiel J. Hirro