The chief of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute said bringing nuclear science into the classrooms will help Filipino students learn and appreciate more the potential benefits the government can generate from atomic energy, like weaning away the country from its dependence on fossil fuel.
PNRI Director Alumanda Dela Rosa said harnessing nuclear power is strategic to any country's supply of energy, "which is the key to social and economic progress and holds the promise of more food, better health and greater productivity."
She added: "We are pinning our hope on the next generation of Filipinos who will be able to participate in the quest for new discoveries within the atom and we could provide them the facts during their formative years in high school and college so that when they become decision makers, they know the facts and they can decide."
The Institute, which succeeded the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission, conducts summer training courses on nuclear science for high school and college teachers at the PNRI training center in Diliman, Quezon City. The program runs for six weeks.
PNRI also holds nuclear awareness seminars in schools and accepts educational tours at the PNRI laboratories. It also sponsored the participation of teachers in international seminars and training programs through its linkage with foreign atomic energy agencies.
"We believe," she told the 134th general assembly of FUSE (Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education), "we need to touch base with students, particularly those in secondary level and the reason for this is that atomic energy, when properly utilized, holds the promise of abundant power."
Turning to the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, Dela Rosa said the controversial facility's sister plants in South Korea, Brazil and Slovenia, with the same technology are now operating and do not posed any serious problems.
Under the plan drawn up by the Department of Energy, the "window of opportunity" to harness nuclear power as source of energy may come in year 2025, which would drastically reduce the country's dependence on imported fuel and greatly diversify fuel sources.
The government, Dela Rosa recalled, had commissioned studies as early as the 1960s to determine the viability of a nuclear power plant in the country and in the 70s, during the oil crisis, decided to adopt a nuclear power program that led to the construction of the Bataan facility.
The years 1985-86, the PNRI head said, were a bleak period for nuclear power development as "nuclear power became a taboo in official planning circles."
Dela Rosa explained to the FUSE assembly, which strongly pushes Science, Math and English as the principal anchors of the education system, that nuclear science supports the development of emerging sciences such as biotechnology.
"The development in this field could not have been fast without the use of radioisotopes to trace the structures and functions of DNA and proteins." Radioisotopes are also utilized to scan the body for cancer and monitor the success of the treatment.
