Nuclear power in the Philippines

Nuclear power was considered as a solution to the 1973 oil crisis, in which the Philippines was affected. The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was built in the early 1980s but never went into operation because it sits on a tectonic fault and volcano. The Fukushima nuclear disaster gave pause to efforts to revive the plant.^[1]

The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

Under a regime of martial law, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in July 1973 announced the decision to build a nuclear power plant. 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. 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. Among the issues raised was that it was built near major earthquake fault lines and close to the then dormant Pinatubo volcano.

See also

• Anti-nuclear movement in the Philippines

References