It was not long ago that Taiwan emerged from the political battle which raged for more than three months over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant
The unprecedented "Category 3A" accident that occurred at the Third Nuclear Power Plant (核三) in Pingtung on Sunday morning -- Taiwan's worst nuclear plant accident -- finally sounded the alarms that three tumultuous months of political wrangling failed to do. When environmental groups reiterated their doubts about the safety of nuclear power during the uproar over the fourth plant, Taipower officials, with straight faces, guaranteed that the odds of a nuclear accident were almost nil, citing the multi-layer safety designs of the plants. Sunday's accident occurred when Taipower's assurances were still echoing in our ears -- an indication that safety designs do not necessarily translate into safe operations.
The accident has been attributed to salty deposits on electric transmission lines that caused two generators to shut down. Two diesel-powered generators that were supposed to power the reactors' cooling systems during emergencies also failed to function. The temperature in the reactors began to rise, melting some steel plates. Fortunately, a third diesel-powered generator was hauled and hooked-up, just in time to prevent a nuclear disaster.
Investigators have yet to file a report on the accident, but the information available at this point indicates serious negligence on the part of Taipower and plant staff. First of all, salty deposits have always been a problem in coastal areas. Short circuits caused by such deposits are not rare occurrences. In fact, Taipower had discovered the problem on Saturday and planned a clean-up the next day. The accident came just before the clean-up was to start. Obviously, the shutdown could have been avoided if Taipower had done a solid job of regular maintenance or kept a more vigilant eye on the equipment.
The fact that Taipower workers failed to connect the two diesel-powered generators into the reactors' cooling systems -- and even started a fire in the process -- is totally unforgivable. All nuclear power plants have layers and layers of safety equipment. Whenever a shutdown occurs, the diesel-powered generators should be able to start running immediately. The fact that a reactor shutdown developed into a "Category 3A" accident is a clear indication of Taipower's laxity, negligence and, dare we say it, incompetence.
Taipower has been able to evade external supervision because of its special monopoly status. As a result, it relies solely on internal controls. Disaster can result when those controls fail to function. This is the main reason why environmental groups and academia cannot bring themselves to trust Taipower, and why the people of Taiwan should now loudly demand a major overhaul in the way the nuclear plants are run and administered.
The company should learn quickly from Saturday's lesson and change its corporate culture. It should allow an academic organization to supervise and evaluate its operations, to ensure that it will have a multi-layer safety operations system just as its reactors do. Even though the fourth plant will have a far better safety system than the third one, the Atomic Energy Council still needs to impose very strict standards on Taipower. Meanwhile, it should also consider decommissioning the three other plants ahead of schedule. Taiwan cannot afford to take any chances when it comes to nuclear safety. There is no room for error.
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