Bataan's Nuclear Power Plant.

[OnMyWay]

19 hours ago, hk blues said:

I've only been here 8 years so I don't have a good amount of data.  All I can say Is living the life I do, and where I am, the influence of corruption is negligible - I'm not saying it isn't there, of course it is, but I don't feel it in my daily life.

Agree that we don't feel it much at our level, because we can't be engaged about it, nor do we want to.  Once in while, we get a peek into what is going on at the highest levels, and that is sad.  And what is very sad is that many Filipinos are content with it being that way.  The election of another Marcos is an example.  It does not bode well for the Philippines to ever move out of 3rd world status.  Even with a growing middle class and some things improving, as long as the elites are allowed to rob the country blind, nothing will change.

I have been here 10 years and I would say corruption. that I am aware of at lower levels. is about the same.  Some here have said that locally the police corruption has been corrected but I have never heard of that in Luzon.  Nobody has the will because everybody gets a cut in some way.  We don't have much visibility to higher level corruption except when a story breaks, but given the wealth of the relatively small group of families that control the country, I would guess that we only have visibility to the tip of the iceberg.

[hk blues]

5 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

And what is very sad is that many Filipinos are content with it being that way. 

I continue to repeat this mantra on this forum whenever this topic comes up - as long as those at the bottom of the food chain who gain little or nothing from the corruption (rather lose a lot from it) continue to condone the corruption, and even participate in it from time to time, there is no hope.  

[Joe LP]

I think the only real avenue for a nuclear power plant to exist in the Philippines is under the new setup where a foreign company could come in and own certain industries that are needs in the Philippines and if my memory serves correctly, power plants are one of those needs.  

So if Japan, for example, was to come in and build the plant, run it and profit off of it, it would be a win win all around.  Probably like most on here, if the Philippines builds it, manages it, runs it....problems will abound.  

That said, if it was set up from the start the right way, I think it would still be doable.  There use to be a nuclear plant only about a 30 minute drive from where I lived in Michigan.  The "checklist" setup there is very, very long.  I think it was back in about 2008 they were found to have failed like 50 points on the checklist, and it didn't even rate a shoulder shrug from inspectors.  It takes a LOT of those checklist points to be missed before anything is in danger.  But again, it's setup that way.  

Don't get me wrong, the power company owners got to work fixing those.  They didn't shrug their shoulders about it.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

2 hours ago, Joe LP said:

So if Japan, for example, was to come in and build the plant, run it and profit off of it, it would be a win win all around. 

You mean like their power plant in Fukushima?  Philippines has too many natural disasters like earthquakes and super typhoons for anyone to feel safe with a nuclear plant near them.  There is no money for cleanup so if there was any kind of failure then we would be looking at another Chernobyl

[scott h]

3 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Philippines has too many natural disasters

I am not so worried about natural disasters as I would be of natural incompetence. If a government cannot ensure an uninterrupted supply of electricity to keep an airport open, can they be trusted to make sure the cooling rods are maintained correctly? 

[OnMyWay]

9 hours ago, Joe LP said:

That said, if it was set up from the start the right way, I think it would still be doable. 

Only if you had a 100% foreign workforce that that was incorruptible.  

[scott h]

15 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Only if you had a 100% foreign workforce that that was incorruptible.

I have thought so for years. Maybe not the entire work force, just the design and management staff,  but foreign owned and managed companies with a guaranteed long term operation and management contract. Sort of a Marshal plan for the PI. There are tons of qualified conglomerates out that could rebuild and maintain the entire infrastructure, but that pesky 60/40 law, red tap and corruption keeps them out. 

[Mike J]

8 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

You mean like their power plant in Fukushima?  Philippines has too many natural disasters like earthquakes and super typhoons for anyone to feel safe with a nuclear plant near them.  There is no money for cleanup so if there was any kind of failure then we would be looking at another Chernobyl

 

[samatm]

I think Philippines should go Nuclear but not at Bataan .  Just scrap that  old place already.    Start new and fresh and safe.    Nuclear is the safest and cleanest from energy.

More people have died maintaining and installing   Wind Farm Turbines  than  in all the  Nuclear Accidents  Globally  in the past 5 decades.    

If the philippines could work with Japan / Korea / US to build some safe nukes.  Go for it.

[hk blues]

4 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Only if you had a 100% foreign workforce that that was incorruptible.  

On 5/7/2023 at 11:22 AM, hk blues said:

I would expect that pretty much the whole process from start to finish and ongoing running would have to be overseen by an outside entity. 

Great minds...