The safety and welfare of the people can better be assured with alternative sources of energy which exclude nuclear options in our energy mix. We should be tapping nature’s bountiful energy sources
BY THE CENTER FOR PEOPLE EMPOWERMENT IN GOVERNANCE (CenPEG)
ANALYSIS
Posted by BULATLAT
Just when we all thought that the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) in Morong, Bataan had been permanently laid to rest by its being mothballed in 1992, now comes the “BNPP” Commissioning Act,” a bill in Congress attempting to revive and operate the controversial nuclear plant that had become the symbol of corruption and folly of the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986).
Despite the BNPP’s total cost of roughly $2.3 billion including interest, two previous post-Marcos administrations had decided to permanently mothball the nuclear plant after a comprehensive scientific and technical audit that reviewed the condition of the plant from 1986 to 1990 showed that the safety and health of the Filipino people would be at grave risk should the plant still be put into operation. Very serious defects were found in the construction, cover design, quality assurance, and workmanship of this monument of the Marcos dictatorship’s corruption and folly.
An international group of U.S. and European scientists, the National Union of Scientists (NUS) Corporation whose scientists and engineers are not tied to the nuclear industry found more than 4,000 technical defects in the graft-ridden project which even the Fortune Magazine branded as a failed project from a fraudulent loan. The NUS Corporation was commissioned by the Corazon C. Aquino government to do a technical audit of the BNPP. This last technical study became the basis why Presidents Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos decided to permanently mothball the BNPP, a policy decision finally made in 1993, despite its tremendous cost. If there will be efforts to commission it after 30 years in hibernation, it will again be the largest contract worth at least 3 billion dollars at today’s costs.
