This photo taken on April 5, 2022 shows a general view of the control room at the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the town of Morong in Bataan province, north of Manila.
AFP/Ted Aljibe
MORONG, Bataan — Even before the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 sealed its fate, there were concerns about the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant's design and location.
The plant sits on the coast 18 metres (59 feet) above sea level and near several volcanoes in a part of the Philippines regularly shaken by earthquakes.
Eighty kilometres (50 miles) west of Manila, the concrete plant is surrounded by a security fence on a peninsula overlooking the South China Sea.
The Philippines is a geologically volatile country and the land near the plant is vulnerable to seismic activity.
Mount Pinatubo, a volcano 57 kilometres north of the plant that was thought to be dormant, exploded in 1991, killing 300 people.
Seismologists say the Natib and Mariveles volcanoes nearby are "potentially active".
Built in response to rising energy demands and the global oil price shocks of the 1970s, the Bataan plant has never produced a single watt of power.
Yet it costs taxpayers between P25 million and P35 million ($478,000 and $670,000) a year to maintain.
Instead of producing electricity, the relic serves as a destination for tourists and students—part of the state-owned National Power Corporation's efforts to educate the public about nuclear power.
Visitors are taken up flights of metal stairs and through submarine-like passages to peer over the dormant reactor and fuel rods still wrapped in plastic packaging. — Report by AFP/Allison Jackson; Photos by AFP/Ted Aljibe