A Facebook post claiming that the reopening of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute’s (PNRI) nuclear reactor training facility on June 20 was in preparation for the “revival” of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is misleading.
The PNRI said in its website that the Philippine Research Reactor-1 Subcritical Assembly for Training, Education, and Research (PRR-1 SATER) is solely for educational and training purposes and not for power generation.
Facebook page Team BBM 2022, however, linked the reopened facility to the mothballed BNPP when it first published the following post at 12:30 PM on June 24:
Preparation for Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Revival. HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE! At 2:47 PM today, all of the 44 fuel rods have been successfully loaded to the Philippine Research Reactor 1 – SATER core. The country has now a working nuclear reactor after 34 years. This is definitely a big step towards a nuclear powered Philippines. Kudos to the Nuclear Reactor Operations Section! © Gino Aliperio.”
Five hours later, Team BBM 2022 amended the post, removing the reference to the BNPP and retaining only the text of the post first uploaded on June 23 by Facebook user Gino Aliperio. Aliperio’s post made no mention of the BNPP.
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