Subic eyes nuke plant site
The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority is looking at re-developing the 300-hectare Bataan Nuclear Power Plant property in Morong, Bataan as a potential investment site in the absence of a large tract of available land within the Subic Freeport.
SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said the agency was studying the type of development fit for the mothballed nuclear plant property.
He said the completion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway project would bring in more investments into the Bataan growth corridor but the agency had limited land resources to offer to prospective investors.
The controversial nuclear power plant sits on a 3.57-square kilometer government reservation at Napot Point in Morong.
Construction on the plant began in 1976 and was completed in 1984 at a cost of $2.3 billion. The plant, with a Westinghouse light water reactor, was designed to produce 621 megawatts of electricity.
But the plant’s construction was stopped in 1979 following the Three Mile Island accident in the United States. A subsequent safety inquiry into the plant revealed over 4,000 defects. It was built near major earthquake fault lines and close to the then dormant Pinatubo volcano.
The project’s debt repayment became the country’s biggest-single obligation. Successive administrations had looked at several proposals to convert the plant into an oil, coal, or gas-fired power plant but all were not less economically attractive than the construction of new power stations. The facility has been dormant.
Arreza said the cove portion of the property was ideal for tourism development.
“We are studying how to get investments to go there,” said Arreza, adding one option was to convert the property into an economic zone with SBMA administering it.
SBMA is the administrator of the Subic Bay Freeport, one of the investment hubs in central Luzon, along with the Clark Special Economic Zone administered by the Clark Development Corp.
Arreza said the limited public lands in the Freeport was a constraint to the inflow of new investments in that growth corridor.
He said the agency was proposing the conversion of public lands along the expressway into economic zones, whose administration could be divided between the agency and Clark Development Corp.
He said if all the public lands were converted into ecozones, investments would pour into that growth area, anchored on Subic as prime shipping and ports center and Clark, which has the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
The public lands could also be administered by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
“What we need is an enabling legislation to have lands along the Subic-Clark corridor under any of these agencies so there would be uniform incentives and these idle lands may be developed into industrial estates. I am hoping the incentives and administration would be in line with ours,” said Arreza.
By Elaine Ruzul S. Ramos - Manila Standard Today
SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said the agency was studying the type of development fit for the mothballed nuclear plant property.
He said the completion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway project would bring in more investments into the Bataan growth corridor but the agency had limited land resources to offer to prospective investors.
The controversial nuclear power plant sits on a 3.57-square kilometer government reservation at Napot Point in Morong.
Construction on the plant began in 1976 and was completed in 1984 at a cost of $2.3 billion. The plant, with a Westinghouse light water reactor, was designed to produce 621 megawatts of electricity.
But the plant’s construction was stopped in 1979 following the Three Mile Island accident in the United States. A subsequent safety inquiry into the plant revealed over 4,000 defects. It was built near major earthquake fault lines and close to the then dormant Pinatubo volcano.
The project’s debt repayment became the country’s biggest-single obligation. Successive administrations had looked at several proposals to convert the plant into an oil, coal, or gas-fired power plant but all were not less economically attractive than the construction of new power stations. The facility has been dormant.
Arreza said the cove portion of the property was ideal for tourism development.
“We are studying how to get investments to go there,” said Arreza, adding one option was to convert the property into an economic zone with SBMA administering it.
SBMA is the administrator of the Subic Bay Freeport, one of the investment hubs in central Luzon, along with the Clark Special Economic Zone administered by the Clark Development Corp.
Arreza said the limited public lands in the Freeport was a constraint to the inflow of new investments in that growth corridor.
He said the agency was proposing the conversion of public lands along the expressway into economic zones, whose administration could be divided between the agency and Clark Development Corp.
He said if all the public lands were converted into ecozones, investments would pour into that growth area, anchored on Subic as prime shipping and ports center and Clark, which has the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
The public lands could also be administered by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
“What we need is an enabling legislation to have lands along the Subic-Clark corridor under any of these agencies so there would be uniform incentives and these idle lands may be developed into industrial estates. I am hoping the incentives and administration would be in line with ours,” said Arreza.
By Elaine Ruzul S. Ramos - Manila Standard Today
Labels: arreza, morong, nuclear plant, sbma, subic clark expressway, Subic Freeport
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