With legislators and civic groups expressing their concern over the safety of nuclear waste treatment, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday that the ministry is planning to set up an independent nuclear waste treatment center.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, legislators across party lines asked how the ministry, Taiwan Power Co (Tai-power, 台電) and the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) plan to deal with nuclear waste and whether they can ensure safety.
AEC Deputy Minister Chou Yuan-ching (周源卿) said 16,671 spent fuel bundles — high-level radioactive waste — produced by the three operating nuclear power plants are being kept in the plants’ spent fuel pools.
Duh said that because the pools at the first and second nuclear power plants in New Taipei City’s Jinshan (金山) and Wanli (萬里) districts are unable to store all the spent fuel bundles produced in the plants’ lifespan of 40 years, the bundles are to be moved to dry cask storage facilities that are now being built as midterm storage sites.
According to Taipower’s Spent Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Program Plan, which is now evaluating potential rock formations, the final disposal site is to be decided by 2038 and ready to use by 2055, he said.
As for low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities, Chou said an estimated total number of about 740,000 barrels — including 292,048 barrels produced during their 40-year lifespan and 455,783 barrels produced during the decommissioning process — are to be created by the three nuclear power plants.
Duh said that about 100,000 barrels are stored on Lanyu (蘭嶼, Orchid Island) and others are being kept in storage facilities at the three power plants.
He added that the ministry in 2012 named Taitung County’s Tajen Township (達仁鄉) and Kinmen’s Wuchiu Township (烏坵鄉) as potential sites for building a final depository, but the two local governments have not agreed to hold local referendums to decide the site.
According to Yilan Charlei Chen Foundation president Chen Hsi-nan (陳錫南), who was invited to present to the committee, the design of Taiwan’s dry cask storage does not allow spent fuel bundles to be removed or transported to other sites, because it lacks sufficient vibration-proof and crash-proof material.
The oldest dry cask storage facilities in the US have only been used for 26 years, so Taipower cannot prove that the facilities can keep the spent fuel safe from leakage for 40 years, Chen added.
Meanwhile, He Li-wei (賀立維), a nuclear expert who worked at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, said seven hydrogen explosions occurred when the institute tried to remove fuel bundles from pools 26 years ago in Taoyuan County’s Longtan Township (龍潭).
Taipower vice president Chen Pu-tsan (陳布燦) said that although the oldest dry cast storage facilities in the US are just 26 years old, they were designed to be used for more than 40 years, and so are the ones designed for Taiwan.
Duh said three months ago, the ministry decided to establish an independent administrative institution to deal with nuclear waste issues, and public hearings are being held to collect opinions.
MAKING A MOVE: Starting on Monday, short-term business travelers can apply for shorter quarantine periods, while transits of up to eight hours would be allowed The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced an easing of restrictions that would from Monday next week allow foreigners to visit or make a transit flight in Taiwan. A policy allowing short-term business travelers from countries with low or medium risks of COVID-19 infections to apply for shorter quarantine periods is also to resume that day. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that while the autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program is to be extended after the end of this month, special conditions for foreign nationals to enter Taiwan would be restored from Monday. Foreign nationals
‘UNFRIENDLY’: COA Minister Chen Chi-chung said that Beijing probably imposed the sanction because the pineapple production season is about to start in Taiwan More than 99 percent of pineapples sold to China passed inspections, the government said yesterday, after China earlier in the day abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from the nation, which Taipei called an “unfriendly” move. From Monday, China is to stop importing pineapples from Taiwan, the Chinese General Administration of Customs said. The regulation is a normal measure for ensuring biosafety, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said in a news release later yesterday. Since last year, Chinese customs officials have repeatedly seized pineapples imported from Taiwan that carried “perilous organisms,” Ma said. Were the organisms to spread in China, they would
CONTINUED VIGILANCE: People would still be required to wear masks at eight types of public spaces and border controls would continue, Chen Shih-chung told reporters The government’s autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program is to continue beyond Sunday, but eating and drinking on high-speed trains would be allowed from Monday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that while there were no new confirmed cases in Taiwan yesterday, the global COVID-19 situation remains serious, so the autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program would be extended beyond its Sunday deadline. “Border control measures, including requiring a negative polymerase chain reaction test result obtained within three days of boarding a plane to Taiwan, and undergoing quarantine in a
‘ONE PERSON PER UNIT’: People undergoing home isolation cannot stay in a housing unit in which non-isolated people live, unless they have special approval Starting tomorrow, people under home isolation would be required to follow the “one person per housing unit” rule if in private housing, or stay at a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the rules require people under home quarantine to be quarantined with one person per housing unit, or at a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility. “Starting on March 1, individuals under home isolation will also be subject to the ‘one person per housing unit’ rule,” he said. “We
RSS