By Christine F. Herrera

THE House committee on appropriations has approved the P100-million budget for the validation of the safety of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.

On the motion of Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the House panel chaired by Quirino Rep. Junie Cua required the conduct of a prior validation or feasibility study to find out if the nuclear plant is safe to operate.

Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who proposed the revival of the white elephant facility, did not object to the validation plan. He even proposed tapping nuclear experts to help determine the cost of reviving the plant. ?If the rehabilitation would fetch more than $1 billion, then we will have the nuclear plant permanently mothballed,? Cojuangco said.

Cojuangco said validation should immediately be made so as to save the government some P40 million in annual maintenance cost of the facility.

The feasibility study will ?determine the viability, of rehabilitating, commissioning and commercially operating the BNPP as a nuclear facility taking into consideration technical, safety, economic, financial and ecological concerns and using as references previous feasibility studies conducted before and after the BNPP was mothballed in 1986,? according to Lagman?s amendment.

Those against the operation of the BNPP hailed the Lagman initiative as a ?killer amendment? because they believe an updated feasibility study would validate the structural defects, safety risks and ecological hazards of the BNPP, which led to its mothballing in 1986, two years after it was completed.

The Greenpeace, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Eco-Waste and other environmental groups have been opposing the revival of the BNPP.

Cojuangco said the BNPP would help meet the projected 3,000 megawatt demand in 2012. The plant is designed to generate 630 MW.