MANILA, Philippines—Faced with rising energy costs and the possibility of a power shortage by 2010, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed Senate Bill 2665 “mandating the immediate re-commissioning and commercial operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plan (BNPP).”

“Given the increasingly prohibitive costs of the present sources of energy and the unreliability of wind, solar and other alternative sources, there is a need to revisit and utilize the nuclear power option,” Santiago said in the bill she filed on Oct. 7.

She said the BNPP was capable of producing 620 megawatts, “enough to power the islands of the Visayas.”