The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) has approved state-run Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) proposal to shutter the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
The plan is to take effect in July and run until 2017.
Taipower submitted the plan in September last year in compliance with an Executive Yuan directive from the previous April, which said the plant was to be shuttered after construction of its No. 1 reactor ceases following a safety assessment, and that construction of its No. 2 reactor should not begin, the council said.
AEC Department of Nuclear Regulation division head Tsao Sung-nan (曹松楠) said the plan underwent several revisions, including a timetable submitted in October last year covering when the company would complete logistics regarding the closing of the plant, as well as clarifications of how improvements would be made such that the proposal is in line with the opinions of the council’s assessment committee.
The final version of the plan was submitted on Jan. 22, and the committee passed it on Thursday last week following a review.
Taipower is to maintain safety on the perimeter of the site after factoring in the facility’s design and functions to ensure the machinery does not corrode, Tsao said.
Taipower spokesperson Lin Te-fu (林德福) said that there are 126 systems at the plant that will need to be monitored during the time it is sealed.
There are 80 systems that will require uninterrupted operation, including cooling systems — which involve the desalination of seawater and supply of cold water — air conditioning, as well as electricity supply and a number of motors, Lin said.
There are also 14 systems that require regular testing, such as a diesel-driven power generator that forms part of the plant’s first reactor, while the remaining 32 systems are to be sealed in nitrogen to be kept from humidity and remain dormant, he said.
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday commenced mass production of 3-nanometer chips that are more powerful and efficient than predecessors, beating rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to a key milestone in the race to build the most advanced chips in the world. South Korea’s largest company said in a statement that it was beginning with 3-nanometer semiconductors for high-performance and specialized low-power computing applications before expanding to mobile processors. By applying so-called Gate-All-Around transistor architecture, Samsung’s 3-nanometer products reduce power consumption by up to 45 percent and improve performance by 23 percent compared with 5-nanometer chips, it said. Samsung’s push to be first
Three to four tropical storms or typhoons are expected to hit Taiwan this year due to a weak La Nina effect in the northwest Pacific Ocean, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday, as typhoon season begins next month. Taiwan’s typhoon season generally lasts from July to September, with most typhoons occurring in August. Weather Forecast Center Director Lu Kuo-chen (呂國臣) told a news conference that a weakening La Nina is expected to have less of an effect on Taiwan. “The climate simulation we conducted, and those conducted by other meteorological agencies around the world, showed that the number of typhoons that
HYBRID THREAT: Lauding the alliance’s global vision in facing up to China’s challenges, MOFA said that Taiwan would continue to bolster cooperation with democratic allies NATO has for the first time singled out China as one of its strategic priorities for the next decade, warning about its growing military ambitions, confrontational rhetoric toward Taiwan and other neighbors, and increasingly close ties to Russia. In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it appreciates the alliance’s global vision in facing up squarely to the systemic challenges posed by China. While Russia’s war against Ukraine has dominated discussions at the NATO summit in Madrid, China on Wednesday earned a place among the Western alliance’s most worrying security concerns. “China is substantially building up its military forces, including nuclear