Nuclear-Resort Pictures: Come for the Reactor, Stay for the Beach

Wish You Were Here
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
Built nearly three decades ago but never used, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (pictured) in the Philippines is now being promoted by its parent company, the National Power Corporation, as a new ecotourism site. Visitors can tour the plant and stay the night at an adjacent beach, which is home to a turtle sanctuary.
"This will be the only tourist-friendly nuclear power plant in this part of the world," National Power spokesman Dennis Gana told the AFP news service. Europe, in particular, is home to several others.
"You don't see a nuclear power plant every day. Especially a nuclear reactor ... so I think for most people it would be very thrilling."
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—Ker Than
Published January 5, 2012
Sealed for Freshness
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
Control rods in a nuclear reactor at the Bataan nuclear facility—the Philippines' only nuclear plant—sit unused and still encased in the plastic they were originally wrapped in.
According to National Power, the plant has been inspected twice, in 1984 and 1985, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and was approved to receive fuel and begin start-up testing. However, the plant was mothballed, largely due to safety concerns, such as its proximity to faults.
The facility has been uranium free since 1997, when the radioactive fuel was sold off.
(Related pictures: "The Nuclear Cleanup Struggle at Fukushima.")
Published January 5, 2012
Zero Danger
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
Electrical control operator Reynaldo Punzalan points to the main control panel of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, where the energy output gauge remains stuck at zero.
The power plant was constructed under the rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos for about U.S. $2.3 billion but was abandoned when the ruler was overthrown in 1986.
Despite never having produced a watt of energy, the nuclear plant continues to cost taxpayers more than a million U.S. dollars a year to maintain, Mauro Marcelo, head of the Nuclear Energy Core Group at National Power, said in an email.
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Published January 5, 2012
Big Red
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
An AC generator at Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is one of the machines that tourists can visit.
The Bataan plant tours began last March after the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown in Japan. Proceeds are to help pay for maintenance of the site—which could still be brought online but only after extensive renovations—and also help convince the public that nuclear is a safe energy option for the Philippines.
"We are not saying we should go nuclear 100 percent, we are saying we should include nuclear in the power mix," spokesperson Gana told AFP.
(Pictures: A Rare Look Inside Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.)
Published January 5, 2012
Back to the Future
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
The 1980s never ended, technologically speaking, in the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant's mothballed main control room.
The trip back in time takes about three hours by car from the Philippine capital, Manila. The entry fee—150 Philippine pesos (about U.S. $3.50)—includes use of a nearby private beach. (See your Philippines pictures.)
The first part of the tour involves a presentation on the plant's safety features, including its apparent ability to withstand an earthquake as strong as the one that shook Japan's Fukushima plant on March 11, 2011.
The rest of the tour includes a guided walk through the guts of the unused plant. "Tourists can see the reactor, steam generators, control rooms, turbine-generators, etc.," National Power's Marcelo said.
Published January 5, 2012
Pool Closed
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
Without any uranium fuel, this nuclear reactor at the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is unused and said to be safe for tourists.
Tom Kauffman, a spokesperson for the U.S.-based Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), said U.S. nuclear power plants don't offer public tours, largely due to national-security concerns. Some facilities, though, have adjacent education centers, where tourists can learn how the plants work.
"For someone to get into a nuclear power plant, even on a tour, there has to be a background check that is required by the Department of Homeland Security. They also have to have a guide with them at all times and have to wear safety equipment," Kauffman said.
(See more Philippines pictures.)
Published January 5, 2012
Having a Blast
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
Dotted with cabanas, the WestNuk Beach Cove is also home to the former Bataan Nuclear Power Plant's former environmental-monitoring office—now a four-bedroom guest house.
The beach—for power plant visitors and staff only—doubles as a turtle sanctuary and includes a "recreational facility for billiards, darts, table tennis, basketball court & karaoke," according to its website.
(Pictures: Southeast Asian Beaches.)
Published January 5, 2012
Powerful View
Photograph by Jay Directo, AFP/Getty Images
A watch tower at the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant complex overlooks the South China Sea. At the plant's five acre (two-hectare) beach area, day-trippers and overnighters have access to showers, a volleyball setup, a floating pier, and more.
Published January 5, 2012
Bohemian Vacation
Photograph by Petr Josek, Reuters
The Bataan plant isn't Earth's only tourable nuclear power facility. The Czech Republic's Temelín plant (pictured behind the town of Tynec nad Sazavou [map] in 2002) opens to school and professional groups—at least to sober, sturdily shod ones.
Know before you go: Some 264 gallons (1,000 liters) of radioactive cooling water leaked from the South Bohemia plant in 2007, but plant officials said the leak was contained and did not cause any damage.
Likewise, the Bataan plant's overseers say their operation is safe. "There's no radiation coming from radioactive materials, since all were already removed," National Power's Marcelo said.
Published January 5, 2012
No Diving
Photograph by Hans Blomberg via Reuters
Patriotically rendered in blue and yellow, a nuclear reactor at Sweden's Forsmark power plant is part of the facility's public tour. While exploring the Baltic-coast plant, tourists wear protective clothing and carry dosimeters, which gauge visitors' radiation-exposure levels.
The Forsmark plant receives about 15,000 visitors a year. By comparison, the Bataan facility has received about 3,400 visitors in 2011, National Power's Marcelo said.
(Read more about nuclear power in National Geographic magazine.)
Published January 5, 2012
Letting Off Some Steam
Photograph by Petr Josek, Reuters
The Czech Republic's Dukovany Nuclear Power Station—and its popular visitor center—is 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Prague. Despite Japan's 2011 nuclear crisis, the Czech government said in October it plans to go full steam ahead with nuclear power.
The Philippines, by contrast, shuttered the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant years ago, in part due to its proximity to quake faults and the shore.
National Power's Marcelo, though, draws sharp distinctions between Bataan and Fukushima, which was crippled by the March 11 quake and the resulting tsunami.
The Philippine plant "sits at 18 meters (59 feet) above sea level," Marcelo wrote. The tallest recorded tsunami in the Philippines was 6 meters (20 feet), he said. Even the Fukushima tsunami, he added, was "only" 10 meters (33 feet) tall.

(Also see "Is Armenia's Nuclear Plant World's Most Dangerous?")

Published January 5, 2012
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Photograph by Tim McKenna
Published January 5, 2012