The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) supported the plan of president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to activate a controversial Bataan Nuclear Power Plant something that is feared to cause damage to nature and public life.
On May 22, Bongbong met with the South Korean ambassador to Manila, Kim Imchul, to discuss the possible revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), something built during Martial Law by the dictator and former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“He seems oblivious that the BNPP will entail radioactive wastes such as uranium mill tailings and spent reactor fuel that has costly and catastrophic consequences,” said Leon Dulce, national coordinator of Kalikasan PNE, Friday.
“For thousands of years, we will potentially pay for toxic impacts on our water, land, and health.”
The 1970s saw the beginning of the development of more than $ 2.2 billion BNPP to provide electricity to the Philippines. Despite this, it was closed due to the issue of corruption and safety because it is close to volcanoes such as Pinatubo, Natib, and Mariveles. It also became a feature issue after the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.
Protests from the people of Bataan and other provinces greeted the said project, and it was no longer used.
“It seems the only reason Mr. Marcos Jr. intends to revive BNPP is to rehabilitate his family’s legacy, at the cost of causing a potential nuclear meltdown,” Dulce added.
Possible revival of Bataan Nuclear Power Plant opposed
“Has he already forgotten about his rhetoric about wind and other renewable energy sources that are more abundant and sustainable in the Philippines?”
“We call on the Filipino people to prepare to oppose once again this looming attempt to waste billions of pesos of taxpayers’ money for a radioactive disaster worth billions, if not trillions of pesos more in damages waiting to happen.”
State-owned power generation firm Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) recently said that they are open to updating their 2017 pre-feasibility study regarding the rehabilitation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, especially as they are interested in helping the Philippine nuclear efforts.
On May 23, resident Rodrigo Duterte hoped the next Marcos Jr. administration would explore nuclear energy that his father tried to generate, especially since the oil supply was not supposed to be “infinite.”
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