A TINY, thick steel door opens to a tungsten-lit cavernous hall of giant metal pipes, valves, gauges and instrument panels.
Then, on through a bulky aged scanner, the ancestor of those fixtures in all airports, for a quick check. Not for some concealed stuff but for radiation readings. At the glass paned abandoned security room, the ancient wall clock dead at 8:13 is truly unnerving.
Follow then six flights of metal stairs, wide but for a single person to climb, the cautionary “Watch your steps” at each landing.
Sweating, huffing and puffing after the climb, one comes to an almost airless chamber, its foot-thick metal double doors more airtight than a submarine’s.
Then more, now even narrower, stairs to a landing not more than five meters directly below the meter-thick concrete dome. There a sight straight out of science fiction: the nuclear reactor.
The thrill of Fukushima and Chernobyl, without the deadly peril, that can very well be the teaser for the newest attraction concocted by the Department of Tourism in Central Luzon: the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant as tourism destination.
The visionary director Ronnie Tiotuico – the very brain trust of the hot air balloon festival in Clark and the Mount Pinatubo trek – brainstormed with Rep. Herminia Roman to find alternative use for the mothballed BNPP as an eco-tourism destination.
More than just a been-there-done-that thing, the BNPP tour – as Tiotuico correctly sees it – becomes a learning experience: “A visit to the plant provides the public a teach-in on why the Bataan complex is nowhere near the emergency situation that Fukushima suffered from recently. The plant engineers will strongly stress that the BNPP has all the necessary technical safety measures to inhibit the occurrence of a full meltdown if and when operated fully.”
It affords the public, he says, to truly appreciate what nuclear energy is and helps them “make an assessment on how these complex structures affect the lives of people living near them.”
Yes, the tour provides a stage for the proponents of nuclear energy to present their case, lost in the fears raised by the horrors of Chernobyl and the tensions at Fukushima.
Lest this be misconstrued as indulging in propaganda, Tiotuico was quick to stress that the DOT “is not in a position to make a verdict on whether nuclear energy is the way to go for the Philippines. It is simple proposing to find alternative uses for the mothballed plant in the meanwhile that it is not being utilized for its purpose.”
Whatever, being “trapped” inside that meter-thick cemented, aluminium-lined domed tower, face to face with a nuclear reactor, the shiny metal fuel rods in place, is one hell of an experience.
And it’s not everyday, and not everyone, gets inside a nuclear reactor and live to tell about it. If only for the bragging rights, get nuked at BNPP.
