An Unused and Divisive Philippine Nuclear Plant Awaits Its Fate — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Ferdinand Marcos Jr., elected president in 2022, has revived the Philippines' pursuit of atomic energy and is exploring options including potentially restarting the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, mothballed for roughly 40 years.
- The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant sits on an 800-acre compound near the seaside town of Morong, west of Manila, where manager Noel Germano and seven engineers manually turn thousands of analog dials, switches, and gears to prevent decay.
- The plant's lone completed reactor was finished in 1984 under President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. — one of four originally planned units — and was designed to produce 621 megawatts but was never switched on.
- Experts say restarting the plant is "not impossible, but a tall and expensive ask," given decades of dormancy and the analog technology involved.
- The government frames the nuclear exploration as a hedge against global energy shocks, with the Bataan site being one option among several under consideration.
Why it matters: The Philippines would inherit a 621-megawatt reactor that has sat idle since 1984 — a potential energy-security win against global shocks, but only after what experts call a tall and expensive technical overhaul. A revival decision would force the Marcos Jr. administration to weigh decades-old analog infrastructure and an 800-acre Morong site against the cost and complexity of a restart.
Ask SkimNews
