Bataan Nuclear Poweplant Tour.docx

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