Bataan Nuclear Power Plant
This facility is a large industrial complex in Morong with massive concrete buildings and an unused Westinghouse light water reactor. The cooling towers and reactor buildings stand empty and show architecture from the late seventies that never fulfilled its intended purpose.
Construction began in the mid-seventies under President Ferdinand Marcos and was meant to help ease energy shortages. After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, safety concerns grew and President Corazon Aquino stopped the project permanently.
The name comes from the province where it stands and carries the weight of political and social controversy. Many visitors see the empty buildings as a monument to failed ambitions and as a place where debates about safety and progress continue to unfold.
Visitors reach the site by road from Manila and can join guided tours to get a look inside the mothballed facilities. The site is large and quiet, and it helps to wear comfortable shoes for walking between the different buildings.
Daily maintenance costs for the unused facility once reached around 155000 dollars without ever generating electricity. Geologists still warn today about a nearby fault line and the volcano Mount Natib, which increase the risk to the structure.
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