Promoting nuclear power anywhere in the world at this point makes about as much sense as promoting zeppelins as a practical transportation option, and nowhere more so than in the Philippines. Reality and common sense, however, have never been much of an impediment to this country’s “nuclear advocacy,” and through sheer persistence it has managed to once again attract some media attention for the issue, if only as a page filler for the business sections of the country’s newspapers.
In the latest news, the pro-nuclear camp — by “camp,” I actually mean “mostly just this one guy” — has prevailed upon President Rodrigo Duterte to direct the Department of Energy (DoE) to study the “reopening” of the more than 40-year-old, aborted Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). The BNPP was one of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ grandiose public-works flops, an expensive mistake that was only aggravated by his successor Cory Aquino’s ordering the facility mothballed before it ever operated.