One of the biggest projects of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos was the Bataan Nuclear Plant, but why is it closed or shutdown?
Before we proceed to my story, let me first discuss how nuclear power plant works. How it produces electricity, and why it is called the cleanest source of energy aside from natural gas like fossil fuel in the whole world.
Nuclear energy starts from separating uranium atoms, we often see this in our table of elements. And mostly, uranium atoms can be found or the main source of uranium atoms used by power plants are our ocean or seas. The process of separating the said atom is called fission. Fission is the process of splitting nuclei which become nucleus.
In this process, it generates steam which is used to move big turbines and this turbine produces electricity. And the best thing about the nuclear power plant is that it does not use the combustion method which damages our greenhouse. On our planet, we have what we called the greenhouse effect. And the greenhouse effect protects us from the excessive heat from the sun.
There are almost 500 nuclear plants in different countries, and it contributes to almost 15% of electricity in the world. Countries such as America, Russia, France, South Korea, and China still use this technology. These countries had a cheaper price of electricity compared to our country.
Now that we had a little idea of what and how the nuclear power plant works, and it is the cleanest and reliable source of energy, then why the construction of it stopped, what is the reason behind it? Here's why,
In the year 1965, the late Ferdinand Marcos was elected as President of the Philippines which became the key to the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. He announced it amid the oil crisis in the middle east, the year 1973. He sees it as the answer to the shortage of electricity in the Philippines. This is also one way of not relying on other countries in terms of exporting oil. There were two companies which we can say as a contractor that vying for the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Plant, GE or General Electric and Westinghouse Electric. General Electric cost for construction was $700 million while Westinghouse Electric was $500 million. It would be wise to hire Westinghouse Electric for they are much cheaper than GE, but that's not the case. The presidential Committee chose General Electric. The presidential committee we're assigned to do the research, special investigation, or anything that the President asks them to do that is needed on the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Plant. However, the President change its decision, and he decides to assign Westinghouse Electric to construct a nuclear reactor in the country. It has been finalized and signed by the said party. But after months of construction, in March 1975, the cost of construction went up to $1.2 billion, without any detailed explanation but still, the construction continues. In 1979, news spreads that there has been a leak of one of the nuclear reactors of the US, and because of this, President Marcos decided to temporarily stop the construction of the nuclear plant. They want to make sure that what has happened to the US will not happen to us. They now make troubleshooting or they analyzed more on making the nuclear reactor.
After thorough analysis, they have found out almost 4,000 defects and one of the most troublesome is that the nuclear power plant is near the fault line and two volcanoes, Mount Pinatubo and Mount Natib which at that time was active, that causes frequent earthquakes on the area. Year 1985 when the construction of the nuclear plant was completed.
After one year, the People Power Revolution happened, which started on February 22 up to February 25, 1986. And this was the reason why the late former President Ferdinand Marcos was evicted from the presidential office. Months had passed, news spreads about the destruction of the nuclear plant of Chernobyl, Northern part of the country Ukraine, which has caused the death of almost 4,000 people, because of radiation exposure.
This could be the biggest negative side or disadvantage of having a nuclear power plant, it's like playing chess, every move needs to be precise. "One miss and you'll die" as what they say.
After late former President Marcos was evicted, Cory Aquino was appointed as president. She decided to stop the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power plant to avoid the tragedy that happened to the US and Ukraine.
After she was appointed, late former President Cory Aquino filed a case of overpricing and bribery against Westinghouse Electric because of the cost of construction that went from $500 million up to $1.2 billion. But the United States of America dropped the case.
$1.2 billion was one of the biggest debt that our country has to pay. The project which supposedly helps our country to have a cheaper and to have enough supply of electricity became useless. And the money that has been used for the construction of the said project was continually paid by our government using the Filipinos' taxes. The power plant became a big display.
The question is, did our government made an effort to restore the power plant?
Well, there were times that these were brought up in the Congress, and the most active of bringing it up was Senator JV Ejercito, which according to him, these has to be thoroughly studied and considered restoring for all we know that the biggest problem of our country is having an expensive price of electricity. According to him, our neighboring countries such as China are continuously developing such technology to help lessen the price of their electricity. Although some wanted it to be restored, many are still against it. According to them, there are many reasons that it shouldn't be restored like,
They were afraid that we would suffer the same tragedy as Chernobyl.
They say it is not cost-efficient in constructing the power plant
Many parts of the Bataan Nuclear plant is no longer functioning and cannot be fixed
Some parts of it are outdated
The area is surrounded by volcanoes and it is near a fault line
Those were just some of the reasons given why they are against restoring the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
Now, what will happen to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant? Will they restore it or just leave it to rot? It is just sad to think that the one thing that could help us have enough supply of electricity and a cheaper price of electricity has just become a tourist attraction by the students of the nearby universities. And some tourists made a stopover in the power plant. There is an entrance fee of more or less P150.00 and is used as an additional budget to maintain the cleanliness of the area.
I hope you had learned something from this article. Let me know your opinion by simply leaving a comment below.
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