President Rodrigo Duterte has reportedly given the go signal to reactivate the 40-year-old Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), contrary to his earlier stand about not putting it to use during his administration.
On March 9, fake news website wrote a fictional story about how Russia has offered to help in the rehabilitation of the nuclear power plant in Morong Bataan, claiming that the story came from Russia Today (now called RT).
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And the story was immediately picked up by Duterte fan pages on Facebook, with the post on “President Duterte Supporters” even gaining almost 1,900 shares, as of writing.
It was also shared by other Duterte fan pages, such as “Pres. Rody Duterte Worldwide Supporters,” “Team Duterte,” and “Duterte News Tambayan,” among other pages.
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The site also named a certain Igor Slavenko as Russia’s Nuclear Energy Minister, to have allegedly discussed with the Philippines the planned rehabilitation of the plant.
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Okd2.com, though, stuck to the facts when it wrote that the Department of Energy (DOE) said that the rehabilitation process would need over 2 years and more than $1 billion to fund its operation.
In an Inquirer report, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said on November 11, 2016 that the BNPP’s rehabilitation may take two to four years at an estimated cost of $1 billion to restore the plant’s original specification of generating 621 megawatts of electricity.
The Okd2.com article went on to say that Slavenko promised to have nuclear experts conduct up to six months of full assessment for the plant. On top of that, the Russian government has allegedly offered $500-million loan assistance and 75 nuclear experts within the first 5 years of BNPP’s operation.
While it is true that Duterte did give the green light for the rehabilitation of the BNPP, there are no other reports that can corroborate Okd2.com’s claims about Russia offering help in restoring the nuclear power plant. This wouldn’t be the first time that the website has made up stories, though.
The fake news site even used the outdated name of the Russian international TV network RT, as it was previously called Russia Today.
We also tried to look for the current Russian Nuclear Energy Minister, but could not find an Igor Slavenko, as per Okd2.com’s claim. What we found, though, is Alexander Novak as the Russian Energy Minister. This means that the fake news site has pulled off one of its schemes – make up names of people.
So Okd2.com’s claims about Russia offering assistance in the reactivation of BNPP is not true at all!
Sources: ( technology.inquirer.net , rbth.com )
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