Bataan Nuclear Power Plant
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Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant, completed but never fueled, on Bataan Peninsula, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Manila in the Philippines. It is located on a 3.57 square kilometer government reservation at Napot Point in Morong, Bataan. It was the Philippines' only attempt at building a nuclear power plant.
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[edit] History
The Philippine nuclear program started in 1958 with the creation of the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) under Republic Act 2067.[1]
Under a regime of martial law, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in July 1973 announced the decision to build a nuclear power plant.[1] This was in response to the 1973 oil crisis, as the Middle East oil embargo had put a heavy strain on the Philippine economy, and Marcos believed nuclear power to be the solution to meeting the country's energy demands and decreasing dependence on imported oil.[2]
Construction on the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant began in 1976 and was completed in 1984 at a cost of $2.3 billion.[2] A Westinghouse light water reactor, it was designed to produce 621 megawatts of electricity.[2]
Following the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the United States, construction on the BNPP was stopped, and a subsequent safety inquiry into the plant revealed over 4,000 defects.[1] It was built near major earthquake fault lines and close to the then dormant Pinatubo volcano.[2]
Marcos was overthrown by the People Power Revolution in 1986. Days after the April 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the succeeding administration of President Corazon Aquino decided not to operate the plant.[1] Among other considerations taken were the strong opposition from Bataan residents and Philippine citizens.[1]
The government sued Westinghouse for overpricing and bribery but was ultimately rejected by a United States court.[3]
Debt repayment on the plant became the country's biggest single obligation, and while successive governments have looked at several proposals to convert the plant into an oil, coal, or gas-fired power station, but all have been deemed less economically attractive in the long term than the construction of new power stations.[2]
Despite never having been commissioned, the plant has remained intact, including the nuclear reactor, and has continued to be maintained.[2] The Philippine government completed paying off its obligations on the plant in April 2007, more than 30 years after construction began.[2]
On January 29, 2008, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes announced that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 8-man team led by Akira Omoto inspected the mothballed Bataan Nuclear power station on rehabilitation prospects. The team members are Zhang Jing, IAEA section head for Asia and the Pacific; Ki Sig Tang, technical officer at the nuclear division; David Greaves and Eric Weinstein; 3 independent experts: John Rames, an expert on legal infrastructure from Australia; Jose E. Brayner, Costa Mattos, a nuclear power expert from Brazil; and Ioan Rotaru, a nuclear power expert from Romania."[4]
The following day, during the 2008 Philippine Energy Summit presided by Secretary Reyes held at the Mall of Asia on Roxas Boulevard, Philippine Government officials, the academe, power sector industries, and NGO stakeholders heard a presentation from the National Academy of Science and Technology entitled, "Nuclear Energy: Time to Revisit the Option? which listed, among others, the pros and cons of the nuclear power option for the Philippines.
[edit] See also
- Nuclear energy policy
- Nuclear power in the United States
- [[1] for more information on the 2008 Philippine Energy Summit]]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e WISE - Nuclear issues information service
- ^ a b c d e f g ABS-CBN Interactive
- ^ Fossil fuel plans for nuclear station - 24 July 1993 - New Scientist
- ^ Afp.google.com, IAEA team assessing Philippines nuclear prospects: report