A tour of once in a lifetime happened last January 22, 2018.

Fellow Mechanical Engineering Students of Technological Institute

of Philippines-Manila together with our two handsome and dedicated
faculty member, Engr. Nicanor L. Serrano, Program Chair of ME
Department, and Engr. Arn James M. Vengua, Class Adviser, accompany
the Educational Tour at Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
Looking at the vast expanse of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant,
all 389 hectares of it, it’s astonishing to see that there are
only about 13 people left to look after its slumbering shell. On
a bright, though sweltering, afternoon, the site is something to
behold: tended landscapes, manicured greenery, and the coastline
make for a stunning background to the plant’s grey behemoth. The
Bataan Nuclear Power Plant located in at the foot of Mt. Natib in
Morong, Bataan. It started construction on 1976 and was almost at
its completion in 1984 during the administration of former
President Ferdinand Marcos. This was in response to the 1973 oil
crisis and cost $2.3 billion. In 1986, succeeding President Corazon
Aquino decided not to operate the nuclear power plant because of
the recent Chernobyl disaster during the time, as well as, the
4000 defects in the plants design and construction, the disapproval
of many Bataan residents and Philippine citizens, and the political
affairs between the said two leaders. The disadvantages of reviving
the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant outweigh the advantages that it
proposes. It is true that if the nuclear power plant is
operational, our dependence on foreign oils and natural gases will
significantly decrease.
As we arrive within the vicinity of the sleeping giant, we go
to a room wherein a brief overview was given before the tour inside
the plant. The advantages of nuclear power were outlined as well
as a general description of how the plant was supposed to be
working, if only it wasn’t shut down by President Corazon Aquino,
following the panic triggered by the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986.
Our group were separated into two, together with respective
Tour Guides. Once I entered the Nuclear Power Plant, only a few
lights illumine the floors and network of steel pipes that crawl
throughout the walls and ceilings. A few guards roam around to
ensure the area was secured, just in case someone was stupid enough
to nick a few things here and there. Hulking machinery and
equipment — all of which were supposed to be state-of-the-art in
the 80s — are unused, obscured by the superior technology that now
exists. Tags mark knobs and handles, preservation labels left by
inspectors from South Korea’s KEPCO, BNPP’s sister plant (which
share the same schematics and features), who studied the plant for
recommissioning, in the event the government decides to get the
plant up and running, a move that would cost around $1 billion.
At the heart of the plant is the massive nuclear reactor.
Protected by a domed structure made of 1-meter-thick concrete and
1.5 meters of steel, it was supposed to provide 625 megawatts of
clean energy. The reactor has since been dismantled, inoperable
without the fuel, which has been sold to Siemens in 1997 during
the time of Former President Fidel V. Ramos. No radioactive
material exists in the site, according to our Tour Guide.
It took the country over thirty years to repay the cost of
its construction and consumes up to ₱50 million in annual
maintenance funds. And all that we have to show for it is a grey
giant, dormant on a lonely hill overlooking the sea, occasionally
wakened by group tours, turning the plant into an attraction.
Today, as power prices surge, the mothballed giant is being
reconsidered as an alternative option to our dependence on coal
and oil, subject to national consensus.
Hopefully, the current Duterte’s Administration will have
refurbished and activated the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. The
government should operate the Plant to alleviate the persistent
power shortages in Luzon and perhaps also lower the power costs
for consumers. I am with the reactivation and operation of the
Nuclear Power Plant. The government also should make sure that
operating Bataan Nuclear Power Plant would not pose any danger to
the people with the vicinity of the plant. The cost of
rehabilitation, which will surely reach billion, should not passed
on to customers rather attract foreign investors who will invest
from the said Nuclear Power Plant.

Tagalog, Ireneo Jr. M.

BSME