Meralco hopeful PhilATOM bill passed soon

MANILA Electric Company (Meralco) hopes that the Philippine Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (PhilATOM) bill gets passed by the Senate at the soonest possible time.

This, as Meralco wants to determine its nuclear energy program deadline.

In a statement, Meralco Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Offocer Ronnie Aperocho explained that any delays to the implementation of the bill would set back the company's targets, noting that building power plants always take quite some time.

"We know that nuclear energy is already a part of our planned power supply mix by around 2032, but we're running out of time, of course, to get a nuclear power plant," he said.

"Hopefully, the nuclear PhilATOM bill will be passed already [by] the Senate by June, as any delay in the enactment of the deal will definitely cause a major backlog in terms of hitting our energy targets," Aperocho added.

"Right now, we have been sending scholars for nuclear studies, and we also signed this agreement with EDF of France [Électricité de France SA], basically for the technical feasibility study of a planned reactor, for one site or location. That's where we are, and without the PhilATOM bill, I think all we could do are these initiatives," he said.

At the end of 2024, the PhilATOM bill had gained some traction in the Senate, with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano sponsoring the proposed Philippine National Nuclear Energy Safety Act that aims to create PhilATOM, an independent regulatory and quasi-judicial body tasked to supervise and oversee nuclear safety and security in the country.

The bill seeks to transfer the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute's (PNRI) regulatory mandate to PhilATOM, and the new nuclear body is envisioned to have regulatory control over all sources of ionizing radiation from nuclear and radioactive materials as well as radiation devices.

Asked to give updates about Meralco's search for small modular reactors (SMRs), Aperocho said they were currently observing Romania for possible acquisition of some of that country's technologies.

"In Meralco, we are keen [about] the deployment of SMRs with [a] capacity range of 300 to 450 megawatts, and we're monitoring this ongoing construction of a first-of-[its]-kind SMR in Romania. They claim that they can get this up [and] running by 2030, and once the target is met, definitely all of the other interested companies like us would be looking into the performance of these first-of-a-kind SMRs," Aperocho said.

"If that proves to be OK, definitely we will be interested. But, of course, cost is a very important consideration. Overall, we really leave it up to the Department of Energy on how we will put up SMRs in the country. There have been discussions already, but again, we leave it up to them to have this first-of-its-kind SMR here in the country," he added.

Meralco shares on Friday were down P5.00, or 0.88 percent, at P565.00 each.