An “Ignorant” Congressman scolded by a Scientist on Nuclear Plant Issue

I’ve been working for an electric power generation company that operates a portfolio of power plants in the Philippines for more than 3 years now. And we understand that safety of the people working and surrounding the power plants that we are operating is the first and foremost priority rather than generating electricity. All decisions in the power plant are carefully studied to ensure the safety of the people around.

In the issue of re-opening the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, I am really outraged with the false justification of Congressman Mark Cojuangco of Pangasinan who proposed a bill to re-open the said nuclear plant. He also said that “the bill was meant to ensure long-term availability of power in the country and reduce the effects of global warming”. However, this is lame and not a valid justification for the re-existence of the Nuclear Plant. Besides, he should know that Nuclear Plant is not the only potential source of clean, cheap, and reliable source of electricity in the Philippines.

Last Friday, on the conference on nuclear power at the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences (UP-NIGS), Cojuangco was accused by an angry US scientist, who conducted a geologic study in the Subic bay, of being “ignorant of scientific data“ and “dangerously misrepresenting the scientific study (that they made)”. “What you’re doing is cherry-picking arguments that would make your proposal look good,” Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo said to the Congressman.

“Dr. Kelvin Rodolfo, professor emeritus of the University of Illinois Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said he was dismayed Cojuangco misused the 2005 study the American and two fellow scientists made.”

“Rodolfo, also an adjunct professor at UP-NIGS and a staunch critic of nuclear energy, argued that the paper did not certify the safety of the area where the BNPP is located.

A heated exchange ensued during the open forum when Cojuangco tried to rebut Rodolfo’s accusations, saying that the rest of his proposed measure was based on solid scientific data.”

“But Rodolfo rebuked Cojuangco saying that the lawmaker should have understood the purpose of their paper, which studied geologic faults in Subic Bay and not Natib where the BNPP stands.”

“Rodolfo said his team even found by accident some geologic faults previously undetected. These could in fact cause some danger to surrounding areas of Subic, which includes Natib, some 10 kilometers away, he said.”

All news excerpt from newsinfo.inquirer.net/ breakingnews/ nation/ view/ 20090213-189233/ US-scientist-scolds-pro-nuke-Cojuangco

In addition to this, I think Cojuangco need to do some study on how a nuclear power plant is operated for him to understand that the existence of geological fault line near the power plant is very critical to its safety and operation before he make such dreadful proposal.

Filed in: Issues and Concerns
Local date: March, 2010

« El Nino Already Started on Early September