Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines had expressed her passion in saving the world as before she were reminiscing about politics, fashion, or her years in and out of power, seriously, she wants to talk about energy.
As the former first lady of the Philippines greets visitors in her Manila apartment years back, Imelda Marcos discusses about uncommon amounts of deuterium; an isotope also known as heavy hydrogen that resides in the water at the bottom of the Philippine Trench. in able to get it, you have to cruise out 170 miles east of the Philippines and bring water up from the ocean floor, of about 6.5 miles below the surface.
Imelda Marcos says she spend millions of dollars a year just to maintain her exclusive right to extract water from the trench, hoping that having abundance of deuterium, it can speed development of advanced nuclear fusion reactors. She even seeking billions of dollars from foreign investors to achieve her vision.
She then remembered Edward Teller, the controversial physicist known as “the father of hydrogen bomb” persuaded her to develop her country’s deuterium when Teller visited in 1971 to the Malacañang Palace. She also added that Teller was her major supporter of her efforts until he died in 2003.
Because of technological challenges, its progress likely to remain slow for decades.
A professor of nuclear science and engineering at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Dennis Whyte discourages Marcos’s assertions saying, “Deuterium is readily available in seawater, even at the surface.” Whyte said.
“A viable demonstration fusion reactor is expected to be online in 2040 or later, with commercialization beyond that time.” Whyte added.
In spite of that, Marcos says she carries on believing that deuterium “can save the world.”
Her current efforts was enclosed in two booklets.
One is a feasibility study that claims deuterium pumped from the Philippine Trench could be processed into high-potent but environmentally friendly fuel that could possibly replace conventional or fossil fuel gas. The study according to Marcos, proposed venture would earn $829 billion a year in its four years after operations begin.
She personally quotes her late husband, who used to say, “What is good for all is good for me,” as for the billions she’d make from the project.
Marcos says that she’s in talks with Japanese businessmen who wants to team up with Philippine government in extracting deuterium from the trench. She even said that big oil companies would be logical investors and liked to attract additional funding from the U.S., Chinese and Russian investors.
“I have been nagging my American friends” to invest, she said. But the project “seems so unbelievable, they think I am crazy.”
Imelda Marcos is infamous for her extravagance. This included owning more than a thousand pairs of shoes, that some of which are now displayed in a museum in Marikina. She served as the First Lady after her husband Ferdinand Marcos was elected on November 9, 1965 as the 10th President of the Philippines.
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