Through Almira Louise S. MartinezReporter
Converting the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) into a data center could benefit the nation, the province’s governor said Tuesday.
“I think this will be one of the largest in the country; the government can certainly benefit from it. At least we have a data center in the country,” Bataan Governor Jose Enriquez “Joet” S. Garcia III said in an interview.
Transforming the power plant could bring many opportunities not only for the province but for the entire country, he added.
“It’s a work-and-play development that I believe can attract investors and locators and create revenue and jobs.”
Further, the local government plans to set up an IT-BPM hub within the proposed center to serve private sectors and businesses.
“We propose that it will be an IT-BPM hub so that there will be locators and different BPMs,” Mr. Garcia said.
Mr. Garcia told BusinessWorld that he views data as “gold” and needs a secure repository, which BNPP could provide given the nature of its structure.
“There are really good opportunities to transform the BNPP into a cloud computing center – in fact, a foolproof data computing center.”
“As we all know, nuclear power plants are also waterproof, so we can use that same technology to make the data center more efficient,” he added.
Mr Garcia is calling on the national government to support the “practical” use of the facility rather than operating it as a nuclear power plant.
“There are so many changes happening in the province; we have so many crucial industries here; we don’t think a nuclear power plant in Bataan would be the most practical.”
Last September 2Congressman Albert S. Garcia of Bataan’s 2nd District held a discussion with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on the structure plans and design of the BNPP conversion project.