Nuke plant now listed as tourist attraction

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga ,Philippines  – The mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) will now be part of the tourism package for tourists visiting Bataan, according to the Region III office of the Department of Tourism.

DOT regional director Ronald Tiotuico said the plant will be included in the tour package as a “reminder of how nuclear energy throughout the world menacingly threatens the quality of life of the people if handled incorrectly.”

The loan used for the building of the plant had been fully paid for in April 2007 but it remains unused.

Tourists will be shown the reactor of the plant which is supposed to contain uranium.

“Hopefully, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant would serve to warn the global community of the fallout disaster that struck people in the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima,” Tiotuico said Monday.

The plant will be part of the tour package which also includes historical sites and beach resorts in Bataan.

Mauro Marcelo, manager of the asset preservation of the Department of Energy, earlier said the BNPP is still intact, including the reactor.

Construction of the nuclear plant was initiated by former President Ferdinad Marcos in response to the 1973 oil crisis.

The building of the plant began in 1976 and was completed in 1984 at a cost of $2.3 billion.