Taipower, AEC differ on location of new waste site

Taipower and its government overseer, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC), appeared at odds yesterday over whether the nation's first final repository for low-level radioactive waste should be built on a small islet in Wuchiu township, Kinmen County.

Speaking before the legislature's Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee yesterday, AEC Vice Chairman Chen Kuo-cheng (陳國誠) said that inappropriate geological conditions and potential pressure from Beijing made it impossible to build the repository on the islet.

"We are inclined to choose a site on Taiwan proper rather than on Hsiaochiu Islet (小坵嶼) in Wuchiu, whose geological structures are not stable enough to meet our safety requirements," Chen told the committee.

Chen offered Japan as an example, saying that a high-level waste disposal site was built in Rokkasho Village (六所村), Aomori Prefecture (青森縣) rather than on a remote islet, to avoid the potential danger posed by unstable geological structures. The site is 523km northeast of Tokyo.

Chen's comments, however, stood in stark contrast to a Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) report presented at the beginning of the hearing.

Lin Ming-hsiung (林明雄), director of Taipower's Nuclear Backend Management Department, reported that the company favored the Hsiaochiu Islet site. However, Lin said the Environmental Protection Administration had not yet approved an environmental impact assessment submitted for the site.

The apparent contradiction between Taipower and its overseer, the AEC, irritated legislators.

"If the AEC has problems with the proposal, why didn't you tell Taipower to give up the infeasible proposal?" DPP legislator Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟) asked the AEC's Chen.

Chen responded that in addition to problematic geological conditions on Hsiaochiu, Chinese pressure was another big concern.

He then asked, "What can we do if Chinese fishermen protest against the project?", adding that the proposal was not feasible given existing cross-strait relations.

The suspension of the project will inevitably delay the relocation of 98,000 barrels of low-level radioactive waste presently stored at an interim repository on Orchid Island in Taitung County.

Demonstrations carried out last month and early this month on Orchid Island were followed by the arrival of Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), Minister of Economic Affairs, on May 4.

Lin promised demonstrators that a Cabinet-level commission would be formed within one month to tackle the relocation project.

Taipower's Lin said yesterday that if the commission asked the firm to reject Hsiaochiu Islet, other options would be possible.

The five proposed alternative sites are reportedly the Pengchia Islet (彭佳嶼), a depopulated island near Keelung, the Tungchi Islet (東吉嶼) of the Penghu Islands, Tashen Mountain (大深山) on Orchid Island, Tajen township (達仁鄉) in Taichung County and Mutan township (牡丹鄉) in Pingtung County.