Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said yesterday that the first reactor at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) may have to be mothballed next year due to the lack of storage space for nuclear waste.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it was in negotiations with France about a solution to the nation’s lack of storage space for nuclear waste.
In a question-and-answer session yesterday at a meeting of the Economics Committee at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, legislators expressed concern about the processing methods for low and high-level nuclear waste.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Taipower said the two spent-fuel pools at the Jinshan plant contained 2,982 and 2,856 spent fuel rods respectively, while the pools at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) contain 4,180 and 4,068 rods, while the pools at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Ma-anshan (馬鞍山), Pingtung County, contain 1,311 and 1,339 rods.
The spent-fuel pool of Jinshan’s No. 1 reactor would be full by November this year, when it undergoes its annual maintenance, Taipower said.
The pools at the Guosheng and Ma-anshan plants would face the same problem in 2016 and 2025 respectively, Taipower said.
Taipower vice president Chen Pu-tsan (陳布燦) said that the company has no choice but to leave the spent fuel rods in the reactor as there is no other storage space available.
Chen said that although the Jinshan Plant is due to operate until 2018, the lack of storage space means it would only be able to generate power until the end of next year, when it would have to be powered down, effectively mothballing it.
Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) said he could not comment on the possibility of the New Taipei City Government agreeing to build nuclear storage bays after the seven-in-one elections in November.
Chang said the government had been in negotiations with other nations, such as China, North Korea, Russia and the Marshall Islands, about the possibility of them processing Taiwan’s nuclear waste.
“We have not received any positive responses to date,” Chang said.
North Korea has previously sued Taipower of failing to honor a contract, signed in 1996, to deliver it nuclear waste for disposal. The contract was not fulfilled due to claims that North Korea had not upheld Atomic Energy Council standards and Taipower therefore failed to procure a permit from the council to export the waste.
In response to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華), Chang confirmed that the government had approached France as a possible candidate to take the waste, as it possesses the technology to recycle and reuse nuclear waste.
Chen said Taipower had also been in contact with France, adding that if a deal is done, the cost of transporting the materials to France would be very steep, pointing to the example of Japan, which also ships its nuclear waste to France.
Chang said storing the waste on an uninhabited island was not high on the list of options due to the lack of such an island, but it was an option if such a location could be found.
Chang said he could not reveal the location of the inhabited islands where the government is considering building nuclear waste storage facilities, another option, for fear that people may change their registered household address to those islands to claim the government subsidies paid to residents living nearby nuclear waste storage facilities, such as Lanyu (蘭嶼).
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, just behind Amazon.com Inc. The site CompaniesMarketcap.com ranked TSMC ahead of Saudi Aramco and Meta Platforms Inc. The Taiwanese company’s ADRs on Tuesday surged to US$385.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications led to chip supply constraints and boost revenue growth to record-breaking levels. Each TSMC ADR represents
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS