Noel Germano leads the way through the dark, airless hallways of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, an isolated compound west of Manila that was meant to be the first source of atomic energy in the Philippines.
asserted
that → lead → Philippines
The plant has been mothballed for decades.
asserted
plant → mothball → decades
A yellow radiation protection suit is only for display, unneeded by Germano, who manages the plant, or any of his seven engineers as they go about the Sisyphean task of manually turning thousands of analogue dials, switches and gears to prevent decay.
asserted
they → manage → decay
The plant was heralded by president Ferdinand Marcos snr in the 1970s as a step into a prosperous, modern era for the Philippines.
asserted
plant → herald → Philippines
Of its four planned reactors, only one unit was completed in 1984, and it was never switched on.
asserted
it → plan → 1984
Decades later, his son – who was elected president in 2022 – has revived the country’s pursuit of atomic energy, and his government is exploring options including potentially reviving the plant in Bataan.
asserted
government → elect → Bataan
The hulking concrete structure sits on an 800-acre site fenced off from the small seaside town of Morong.
asserted
structure → sit → Morong
The plant’s grounds are still well maintained, but its interior, with the reactor that was designed to produce 621 megawatts, resembles a museum diorama.
asserted
that → maintain → diorama
Bringing it to life is not impossible, but it is a tall and expensive ask, experts say.
asserted
experts → bring → life
Marcos, a dictatorial leader who was in power from 1965 to 1986, wanted to diversify the Philippines’ energy sources to guard against global oil shocks like the one in 1973.
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who → want → 1973
His son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, has had to deal with similar fallout from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
asserted
son → have → Ukraine
Reviving the Bataan plant might prove a hard sell in a cash-strapped country, especially to the Filipinos who see it as a reminder of the corruption and repression of the Ferdinand Marcos snr era.
uncertain
who → revive → era
And the threat of nuclear catastrophe feels immediate for many residents of Morong just up the coast.
asserted
threat → feel → coast
The project has never been free of scepticism, facing a number of questions from the beginning.
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project → face → beginning
Does the Philippines have enough expertise to run a nuclear power plant safely?
asserted
Philippines → have → plant
Is it wise to build one in a part of the world where earthquakes and tsunamis are a constant threat?
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earthquakes → build → world
Can the country even afford it?
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country → afford → it
Ferdinand Marcos snr’s government secured financing for the plant through debt.
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government → secure → debt
Hundreds of engineers and technicians were sent abroad for training to build up a workforce capable of running a nuclear facility.
asserted
Hundreds → send → facility
The site, on a peninsula across the bay from Manila, was chosen because there was abundant water to cool the reactor, and it was considered high enough to be safe from tsunamis, a constant threat given the region’s frequent earthquakes.
asserted
it → choose → earthquakes
Construction began in 1976, bringing a windfall to many people in Morong and nearby towns who were hired to work on the project.
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who → begin → project
They included Valentino Tolosa, who said he could not believe his luck when, aged 18, he got a job as a cable puller.
uncertain
he → include → puller
It paid about $US27 a day, 10 times the allowance he got from his mother, he said.
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he → pay → mother
Three years into the plant’s construction, more than 12,000 kilometres away in Pennsylvania, a reactor at Three Mile Island suffered a partial meltdown in what remains the worst nuclear energy accident in US history.
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what → suffer → history
It turbocharged the anti-nuclear movement in the Philippines, with activists regularly coming to Morong to campaign against the plant being built nearby.
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plant → turbocharge → Morong
Rumours also spread across the Philippines in the 1970s that the site was particularly dangerous because it sat above a fault line, and was 64 kilometres from Mount Pinatubo, an active volcano.
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it → spread → Pinatubo
Researchers from the Philippine Department of Science and Technology have since found no active fault lines under Bataan, and the site was unharmed by the volcano’s most destructive eruption since, in 1991.
asserted
site → find → 1991
The first Marcos government, which displayed little tolerance for dissent, came down hard on the plant’s opponents.
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which → display → opponents
Pilar Nazareno, a resident of Morong, said dozens of her neighbours who had questioned the nuclear project at the time were taken by police or labelled communists by the government.
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who → say → government
Some residents pretended to attend Bible studies at a local church as cover for discussions about the plant, she said.
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she → pretend → plant
“It fell to the priests and nuns to teach us about the nuclear plant, and what would happen to us if it had a meltdown,” Nazareno, 68, said.
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Nazareno → fall → meltdown
The Three Mile Island accident led Philippine authorities to suspend construction at Bataan in 1979 for a safety review.
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accident → lead → review
The design was updated, and work resumed the next year, but safety was just one of the criticisms: Marcos faced persistent allegations of corruption related to the project, including that the American company Westinghouse had given him millions of dollars in illegal payments to secure a contract to build the plant.
asserted
company → update → plant
By the time it was completed in 1984, the plant’s cost had more than doubled to more than $US2 billion.
asserted
cost → complete → billion
It took two more decades for the government to pay off the accumulated debt.
asserted
government → take → debt
Marcos was by then struggling for his political survival.
asserted
Marcos → struggle → survival
In February 1986, he was overthrown and fled the country.
asserted
he → overthrow → country
With its biggest backer out of office, the nuclear plant’s future was thrown into doubt.
asserted
future → throw → doubt
“When the government changed, we already knew nothing would move forward at the plant,” said Antonio Corpuz, a chemical engineer who was appointed the plant’s manager in 1978.
asserted
who → change → 1978
Two months after Marcos’ departure, a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union, in what became the world’s worst nuclear accident.
asserted
what → explode → Union
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
