Aussie firms offer to build 40-MW thorium reactor in PH

NUKE PLANT. Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual (left) meets with Southern Infrastructure Pty. Ltd. managing director Paul Watson in Adelaide, Australia on Monday (Oct. 9, 2023). Watson discussed the company’s plans to build thorium-fired reactors in the country. (Courtesy of DTI via PNA)

MANILA – Australia-based Southern Infrastructure Pty. Ltd. and Kaizen ANZ Pty. Ltd. want to invest in a 40-megawatt (MW) thorium reactor in the Philippines, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual met with representatives of the two firms in Adelaide on Monday, a day before the 6th Philippines-Australia Ministerial Meeting.

“In the meeting, they discussed a potential project in developing, building, and operating an initial 40 MW thorium-fueled simple, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor STGR20 to deliver a safe, sustainable, and green base load energy at the lowest kWh (kilowatt hour) rate in the market at USD0.038 per kWh,” DTI told reporters in a Viber message.

Pascual underscored the opportunities in the Philippine energy sector as the country looks into alternative sources, such as hydrogen and nuclear, while exploring further studies to establish relevant policies and sustainable practices.

The DTI said the Australian firms want a public-private partnership agreement.

Aside from producing cheap electricity, the system is also capable of producing green hydrogen for transport, desalinated water as a by-product, and gamma radiation as another by-product to allow long-term storage of food products.

“The project will start by mid-2024 and finish construction by 2027 and is expected to generate at least 1,000 local jobs during its construction and operation,” the DTI added.

Sought for an industry-expert’s comment, Korean Nuclear Association for International Cooperation division manager Ju Donghyeon said thorium is being used as fuel to produce nuclear energy.

“Thorium-fueled plant is also considered as nuclear power but they are still under investigation. It is expected to be safer and produces much less nuclear wastes than the conventional nuclear power plant,” Ju said.

Uranium is widely used as fuel for nuclear power plants.

“It also needs much less water, so it is expected to be distributable in the inland. But the power capacity will be much smaller than the conventional nuclear power plant,” Ju added.

The Philippines does not have nuclear power in its energy mix as the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, built in the 1980s, was never used after opposition to its safety and corruption concerns.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte, before he ended his term in June 2022, issued Executive Order (EO) 164 that orders the inclusion of nuclear power in the country’s energy mix.

The EO also aims to establish a national policy on nuclear energy and to institutionalize a Nuclear Energy Program to withstand changes in administration.