Philippines debates reviving Southeast Asia’s only nuclear power plant: ‘If anything bad happens, we can just evacuate’

The Philippines is seriously considering resurrecting a mothballed nuclear facility as it seeks to shield itself from a global energy supply crunch

It could generate about 5 per cent of the country’s power needs and polls indicate widespread support — but there’s that US$1 billion price tag

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The nuclear facility in Bataan was ultimately mothballed after Ferdinand Marcos Snr, who ordered its construction, was ousted in 1986. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:02pm, 13 Dec 2022Updated: 12:27pm, 13 Dec 2022

A nuclear power plant on the Philippines’ western coast has sat idle for nearly four decades, costing billions of dollars and never producing a watt of electricity. Now, it’s at the centre of debate over whether the nation should finally adopt atomic energy.

Dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered construction of the 620-megawatt Bataan facility in response to the oil shock in the 1970s, the first and only one of its kind in Southeast Asia. Beset with safety concerns and corruption allegations, the completed project was ultimately mothballed after Marcos was ousted in 1986.

The six presidents who followed all decided against commissioning it, deterred by nuclear disasters, local politics and court cases.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is looking to fulfil his father’s nuclear ambitions. Photo: AFP

But with the former strongman’s son Ferdinand Marcos Jnr winning the presidency earlier this year, the Philippines is taking another look at restarting the plant – and fulfilling his father’s nuclear ambitions – as the oil-importing nation looks for ways to shield itself from a global energy supply crunch.

A decision on whether to commission the plant “can be done soon enough,” possibly within Marcos’s six-year term, Energy Undersecretary Sharon Garin said in an interview. “We are not discarding the Bataan plant, but we have to make sure that it’s safe to revive,” she said. The government plans to hire a third-party evaluator next year to check the viability of the facility.

A nuclear plant the size of the one in Bataan operating near peak capacity would have generated about 5 per cent of the Philippines’ power needs last year, according to calculations based on BloombergNEF data. Coal accounted for 60 per cent of electricity generation while the country’s declining gas supplies contributed another 17 per cent.

The revival of the Philippines’ nuclear ambitions is part of a broader global push to tap the energy source amid a shortage of gas sparked by the Ukraine war. Concerns about global warming have also renewed interest in carbon-free technology. Japan and South Korea are removing anti-nuclear policies, China and India are looking to build more reactors, while France and Finland are set to restart some nuclear facilities.

Philippines debates reviving Southeast Asia’s only nuclear power plant: ‘If anything bad happens, we can just evacuate’

The Philippines is seriously considering resurrecting a mothballed nuclear facility as it seeks to shield itself from a global energy supply crunch It could generate about 5 per cent of the country’s power needs and polls indicate widespread support — but there’s that US$1 billion price tag

The Philippines is seriously considering resurrecting a mothballed nuclear facility as it seeks to shield itself from a global energy supply crunch

It could generate about 5 per cent of the country’s power needs and polls indicate widespread support — but there’s that US$1 billion price tag