MANILA, Philippines -- The environmentalist group Greenpeace expressed “strong opposition” to the rehabilitation and reopening of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), saying it would be “stacking one potential catastrophe over another.”

At a press conference Tuesday, Amalie Obusan, Greenpeace Southeast Asia climate and energy campaigner, presented the group’s position paper against Senate Bill 2665 (An Act Mandating the Immediate Re-commissioning and Commercial Operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant).

Greenpeace will be giving copies of their position paper to concerned agencies, including the Senate and the Department of Energy, Obusan said.

“You can’t solve a problem by creating another problem. To propose nuclear expansion in the name of climate change is stacking one potential catastrophe over another,” Obusan said.

“Not only does it seem outrageous to dig up mistakes from the past, it would be a complete waste of money that is much better spent on further development of the country’s plentiful renewable energy sources,” she added.

Obusan said passing Senate Bill 2665 would be a “step back 30 years,” and would contradict the Renewable Energy Bill, which the chamber passed recently.

The group said the $800-million cost of rehabilitating the BNPP would be “equivalent to the cost of a new power plant.”

Beau Baconguis, Greenpeace Southeast Asia toxics campaigner, said operating the BNPP or any nuclear power plant here would pose serious problems not only for the environment, but also people’s health.

She said an accident like the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia, which contaminated more than 120 square kilometers, could trigger outbreaks of cancer and respiratory, digestive and reproductive problems.

Greenpeace also said nuclear power would not help curb climate change or replace the country’s dependence on oil, gas, and coal.

“Nuclear power could at best make only a negligible contribution to greenhouse gas reduction, and investment in this technology deprives real climate solutions, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, of funding,” it said.

Baconguis also said rehabilitating and reopening the BNPP would bring the risk of “nuclear terrorism” should groups get their hands on nuclear waste to produce “dirty bombs.”

“Experiments by the US government have proven that several nuclear weapons can be built in a matter of weeks using ordinary spent fuel from light water reactors. One study showed that a country with a minimal industrial base could quickly and secretly build a small reprocessing facility, called a ‘quick and dirty’ plant, capable of extracting about a bomb’s worth of plutonium per day,” Greenpeace said.