A FEASIBILITY study has yielded positive initial findings on the potential to develop a new nuclear power facility at the old Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) site, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said on Tuesday.
In 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) signed a memorandum of understanding with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. Ltd. to fund and conduct a comprehensive feasibility study on the plant’s potential rehabilitation.
The findings give the government several options, including rehabilitating the existing plant, replacing it with a modern facility, or selling the infrastructure to the private sector, Garin told reporters at the World Nuclear Supply Chain Forum in Taguig City.
Construction of the BNPP in Morong, Bataan, began in 1976 under President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and was completed in 1984. The 620-megawatt facility was intended to reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil following the 1970s oil crisis.
The plant never generated electricity amid safety concerns and allegations of corruption surrounding the project. President Corazon Aquino’s administration mothballed it in 1986, following Marcos’ ouster and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union, which heightened fears over nuclear safety.
A new facility could use a conventional reactor with a capacity of 600 or 1,200 megawatts or a small modular reactor, Garin said.
DOE Director Patrick Aquino said the study would help guide discussions with foreign governments and the international nuclear community on the plant’s future.
It would also give the government and potential private investors clearer cost estimates and a basis for assessing how the project could strengthen the country’s energy security, Aquino added.
