1955 – The Philippines' nuclear energy program started when the country signed on to the US Atoms for Peace Program during the Magsaysay administration.
1956 – President Carlos Garcia pushed for the creation of the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission
1963 – 1965 – President Diosdado Macapagal initiated the first UN pre-investment feasibility study for a nuclear power plant in Luzon.
1973 – The oil crisis of 1973 hastened the development of the country's nuclear program.
1975 – 1979 - Napocor and Westinghouse Electric Co., the company which made the equipment for the world’s first nuclear power plant in 1957 , signed the contract to build the South East Asia's first nuclear plant.
1984 -- Construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is completed. The 620-megawatt power plant sits on a 357-hectare government reservation at Napot Point in Morong, Bataan, and cost the government over $2 billion.
February 1985 - an IAEA pre-operations safety review was conducted and by June 1985 a pre-operational core load test was completed and the plant was ready for commercial operations.
February 11, 1986 - the Supreme Court enjoined PAEC from issuing a license to Napocor that would have started the plant's commercial operations.
February 25, 1986 - the EDSA Revolution signaled the end of the Marcos regime and the rise of Cory Aquino to presidency.
April 30, 1986 (1) – Five days after the Chernobyl nuclear accident on April 25, 1986, then President Corazon Aquino suspended the Westinghouse contract and created the Presidential Committee on the Philippine Nuclear Power Plant. This led to the cabinet decision to mothball the plant, citing an international team finding of roughly 4,000 safety defects, in addition to the fact that it was built on an earthquake-prone area.
1987 – President Aquino transformed the PAEC into the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), through Executive Order 128. It mandated the PNRI to "promote and regulate peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including its application in power generation, agriculture, medicine, and others".
June 1992 - A government-commissioned study by the US-based National Union of Scientists Corp. finds that the safety-related defects were so “serious and numerous that it would be uneconomical and dangerous to have it repaired, fixed and possibly ready for operation as a nuclear power plant.”
1998 and 1999 - The two gas turbines as part of the settlement with Westinghouse were sold for only $58.3 million.
July 16, 1990 (2) - An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck central Luzon. This was the largest earthquake recorded in 1990. Its epicenter was at Cabanatuan City, about 100 km northeast of Pinatubo.
June 15, 1991 - The onset of the climactic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. On the same day, Typhoon Yunya struck the island, passing about 75 km (50 miles) north of the volcano. Pyroclastic flows poured from the summit, reaching as far as 16 km away from it. Typhoon rains mixed with the ash deposits caused massive lahars.
The ash cloud from the volcano covered an area of some 125,000 km² (50,000 mi²), bringing total darkness to much of central Luzon. Almost all of the island received some ashfall, which formed a heavy, rain-saturated snow-like blanket. Tephra fell over most of the South China Sea and ashfall was recorded as far away as Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia.
April 13, 2007 – Filemon Condino, head of the fiscal planning and assessment division of the Bureau of the Treasury announced that the country had made the final payment of $15 million for the BNPP loans. After almost 32 years, the controversial power plant cost the Filipino taxpayer a total of P21.2 billion ($460 million dollars at today's exchange rate) on a debt of $1.06 billion.
January 2008 - An eight-man team from the IAEA arrived in the Philippines to examine whether or not plant can be rehabilitated. The team will eventually report to the government whether it is still economically feasible to restart the plant or to just abandon it altogether.
February 2009 - Congressman Mark Cojuangco proposes to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant and is seeking $1 billion in government funds to revive the 620-megawatt plant in Bataan province.
***
Notes to self (not a required reading):
(1) An Alternate history can be traced back from the date when the plant was mothballed in April 1986 by the Aquino Administration. The following can be considered key events leading to this event:
- People Power Revolution of February 1986
- Ninoy Aquino's Assassination of August 1983
(2) There is a possibility of the actual operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant considering Alternate History mentioned in (1) . The natural disasters (Earthquake, Pinatubo Eruption, Typhoon) may or may not have any impact on the functional plant.
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References:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view_article.php?article_id=34486
http://www.cscap.nuctrans.org/Nuc_Trans/locations/philippine-june10/philippine.htm
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAN79547.htm
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