From the Water Into Radioactivity

Annyeong friends! Turtle gang is back with our next post---

the second part of the field trip: Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. 

      So, first of all, what exactly is nuclear energy? Well, nuclear energy is the energy of an atomic nucleus released by fusion or fission or radioactive decay. While nuclear power is the use of the sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and the good-old electricity we use every day. 

  Now, you would ask, why is it important? Well, in lots of countries, Nuclear Power Plants are used as sources of electricity such as in Japan, China, and U.S.A., with U.S.A. producing the greatest amount of nuclear energy.  Since it runs on Uranium pellets it does not release carbon emissions. Uranium pellets are highly radioactive and is equivalent to 1 ton of coal or 169 gallons of oil. Not that this is not harmful, but if maintained and supervised, nuclear power plants could be helpful in our work and health. 

  But just like anything else in this world, nuclear energy also has its disadvantages. If being processed in power plants, it must always be secured. Workers should always take primary precautions in working and thinking about safety first. Also, maintaining a nuclear power plant is a little too hard and expensive for a country like ours. If a power plant is not maintained, this could cause great damage and could kill life. But look at one of the Nuclear Power Plants in Korea, it's only minutes or hours away from Busan, a famous tourist destination, yet has not yet endangered lives. As long as we know how and can maintain a nuclear power plant, we could probably, again, PROBABLY, re-open BNPP (of course with some replacements of metal, equipment, and all). And for fact the 2 most devastating nuclear disasters, Fukushima and Chernobyl disaster, were actually caused by their structure. Fukushima's cooling system was underground, so when it was flooded the cooling system broke down. Because of that the nuclear reactor itself overheated and ended up exploding. The Chernobyl disaster was actually caused by flawed reactor design. The power of the Main Circulating Pumps was decreasing ;therefore, the momentum of the water flow decreased. With not enough cooling the nuclear reactor overheated and exploded just like the Fukushima accident.

   
     We, the Turtle Gang honestly think that harnessing energy from nuclear power plants is not really that bad. It’s actually how we manage the situation, whether or not we are ready and are capable of doing so. Harnessing energy from nuclear power plants is actually helpful to the environment (but not to the budget of the government XP) But it is also hard to find a site for the power plant, to build the power plant, to buy the materials, etc.




     So, as stated a while ago, we went to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant or BNPP. BNPP was a power plant built in the time of President Ferdinand Marcos. It was his response to the oil crisis in 1973, thinking that it will be the solution to meeting the country’s energy demands and decreasing dependence on imported oil. By 1984, BNPP was nearly complete, costing $US 2.3 BILLION. However, when Marcos was overthrown by the People Power Revolution, the following administration of President Corazon Aquino decided not to operate the plant. 

     We all expected to learn how nuclear energy is processed and distributed throughout the community. Also, we wanted  to learn the importance and history of the BNPP and how it came to be. And, this we learned! We even got an exclusive tour around the place ---gaining facts from our awesome tour guide who explained to us what happens in each part of the power plant.

All of us got excited over one part of the nuclear power plant, the control room. Why? Well, it is plain epic! It's like the main command center of the whole place, even having a direct line to the president in Malacanang. It gives off a very, alien-like space ship feel. It’s very eye-catching and makes our inner curiosity spark, wondering what that red button does…*sigh*. A mystery which will never be solved. XD 

Factoids:
1) Did you know that our everyday cellphones produces more radiation than just standing outside a nuclear power plant?
2) Did you know that all nuclear reactors are covered with 1.5 meter thick walls?
3) Did you know that bananas are naturally radioactive?

Well, that’s all my friends! I hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for more updates! So,’til the next post! Tah-tah my friends! *swims with turtles to the sea*

We would like to give special thanks to Pastor Eryche and his work about nuclear energy for further explaining it to us and giving us a lot of facts! =) 

"Bago mo sabihin at gawin, makapitong iisipin."

-Tagalog Saying

(That's why until now they haven't opened the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Just Kidding! I don't exactly know why...)

Photos by: TinCan and Zefyron

Written by: Alphawolf and Zefyron