The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that it has no intention of extending the life of the Jinshan and Guosheng nuclear power plants, as environmental groups have claimed, but would need to send some of the plants’ spent nuclear fuel overseas because of a storage problem.
It said the construction of a new dry storage facility has fallen behind schedule, and that if the nation’s storage capacity runs out before the decommission date of the two power plants in New Taipei City, they would have to be closed ahead of schedule.
This would greatly affect the supply of power in northern Taiwan, the ministry said in a report submitted to the legislature.
The plan is to send 1,200 clusters of spent fuel rods overseas for processing, at an estimated cost of NT$11.3 billion (US$356.6 million), the ministry said.
The decommissioning of the two power plants is scheduled to begin in 2018 and to be completed by 2023, the ministry said. Until then, state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) has a responsibility to ensure their continued proper operation, it said.
Recent statements by local environmental groups that Taiwan is preparing to send spent nuclear fuel overseas to extend the life of the two plants is incorrect, the ministry said.
It said that the 1,200 clusters of fuel rods amount to only three years’ worth of spent fuel from the two plants.
The ministry said it plans to send an initial batch of 300 fuel rod clusters for processing by the end of this year and the rest by the end of 2018.
The plutonium and uranium extracted from the waste is to be resold by the disposal plant and would not be shipped back to Taiwan, the ministry said in its report.
Other countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, France and Britain also send their nuclear waste abroad for disposal, the ministry said.
The report was submitted to the legislature ahead of today’s session, during which Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) is expected to answer questions about the overseas disposal plan.
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