According to a Department of Energy (DOE) official, the interagency task force carries on with studying nuclear power in order to meet the country’s energy requirements.

There are many things that have to be done with using nuclear power as an alternative source of energy, said DOE’s Energy Resource Development and Oil Management Undersecretary Sandy Sales.

In a news forum, Sales said that there is an inter-agency task force that are studying the said topic and are residing, with the other relevant government agencies, in DOE.

The Nuclear Energy Program Inter-Agency Committee (NEP-IAC) is the said inter-agency task force.

There are still a lot of studies about nuclear energy and that the nuclear option is open to us, with a lot of its technologies available, Sales added.

However, the country does not have the construction to utilize nuclear energy as an alternative source of energy and must plan a regulatory framework for it, Sales explained.

The team is reviewing it and hopes that we can return to the situation where, depending on the situation, it can be potentially part of the energy needs of the Philippines in the upcoming years. Nuclear is also one of the technologies where it can react fast to the variability of renewable energy, Sales said, pointing out that nuclear must be carefully studied since it can pose some risks.

President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. and his administration will explore nuclear energy as part of the alternative sources to address a possible power crisis in the country.

Previously during his trip in the US, the President met with officials from the Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation.