Manila: Philippine officials have come up with an idea on what to do with a nearly three-decades-old nuclear reactor that never been used to generate electricity - employ it as a tourist attraction.
According to Department of Tourism (DOT), the moth-balled nuclear power plant in Bataan, will be used as a tourist attraction in Central Luzon.
Although the nuclear plant, constructed by American firm Westinghouse in 1976, never saw a day of service since it was completed in 1984, it had become a symbol of excess of the administration of the late dictator, President Ferdinand Marcos.
"Hopefully, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant would serve to warn the global community of
Fallout disaster
the fallout disaster that struck people in the Three-mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima," Ronald Tiotuico, regional director of the DOT was quoted in a report by the daily Philippine Star.
It took Filipino taxpayers 24 years to pay for the loan taken out by the Marcos administration for its construction. The BNPP turned out to be a "white elephant," because not only was it was too costly to maintain, but also because it is too dangerous to operate.
The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) sits right on top of an earthquake fault and experts during the time the project was finished in the mid-80s said the $2.3 billion facility would be too risky if it were to operate.
Reactor 'largely intact'
According to Mauro Marcelo, manager of the asset preservation of the Department of Energy, despite its condition, the BNPP largely remains still intact, including the reactor.
DOT said site visits to the decrepit condition, the BNPP, located a little more than a hundred kilometres west of Manila, could be packaged as part of a tour that will include visit to nearby sites such as Mount Samat, also in Bataan, as well as beach resorts.
The BNPP had been envisioned by the Marcos administration as the main source of power for Metro Manila and nearby provinces in Central Luzon region.
