President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr talks about accord for reviving his late father’s nuclear power plant project in Bataan. Marcos Jr said he met with South Korean Ambassador Kim Inchul on Monday to discuss a proposal regarding the Bataan power plant.

The Bataan nuclear power plant was a project of Ferdinand Marcos Sr as a response to the 1973 oil hike crisis. It was signed in 1976 and completed in 1984 at a 1.9 billion dollar cost. However, due to financial issues brought by allegations of corruption and safety concerns following the 1986 Chernobyl power plant accident, it was never loaded and operated.

“Binuhay namin muli ang diskusyon na ‘yon, although they have come before. We will now study their recommendations and their findings, and we will see if we can still apply” says President-elect Marcos Jr

In a 2020 senate hearing, Energy secretary Alfonso Cusi said that studies done by South Korean and Russian experts said it was possible to get the power plant working again after 4 decades.

Outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte issued an executive order earlier this year to make nuclear power plants part of the Philippines’ energy resource because the country’s always affected by electric outages brought about by typhoons and other disasters. We rely on imported carbon-belching coal for more than half of its power generation. 

Marcos noted that a power plant like this needs to have at least 3 years before it can operate and be of use, he says, “Kahit na hindi aabutan ng adminstrasyon ko, we still have to start somewhere”.

Those in favor of nuclear energy say that technology is innovating and becoming much safer. It would be a cleaner and efficient option to help meet the demands for a source of energy. While critics stated that renewable sources of energy, such as wind energy and solar energy are much safer and cheaper to produce by a country that always comes up against natural disasters like typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.