Shutting nuclear power plants may cost US$10bn

Taiwan's plans to close three nuclear power plants ahead of schedule may cost around US$10 billion, it was reported yesterday.

The three power plants would be shut down in 2001, 2004 and 2007 respectively, or seven years earlier than planned, according to an economic ministry report, the Chinese language media said.

"The cost of the plans may run up to NT$350 billion (US$10.14 billion)," an unnamed official said.

The plans would be implemented only if Taiwan Power Co's (Taipower, 台電) output capacity was 15 percent higher than peak demands.

The government and opposition parties agreed early this year to build a nuclear-free zone in the wake of a row over the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四).

The government scrapped the partly built US$5.6 billion power plant on Oct. 27 last year without consulting the legislature as required by the Constitution, plunging the country into months of political crisis.

The DPP, which had listed the scrapping of the project on its party platform, reinstated the project in February. It opposed nuclear power on grounds of safety and difficulty in disposing of the nuclear waste.

Since the first nuclear power plant started in 1987, the three nuclear power plants have generated 180,000 drums of low-radiation waste.

To solve the pressing problem, Taipower plans to build a disposal site on the remote Wuchiu (烏坵) islet, where up to 160,000 barrels of low-radiation waste could be stored. The plan is strongly opposed by hundreds of Wuchiu residents and Beijing.