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County commissioner wants action on waste

Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) yesterday called on state-owned Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) to speed up the removal of nuclear waste from the first and second nuclear power plants in his county.

Cho made the remarks while presiding over a county meeting at which the pollution issue was raised following an oil leak the previous day at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant -- still under construction in Kungliao (貢寮), Taipei County -- which led to river and sea pollution.

Chou noted there are three nuclear power plants in Taipei County, and that high and low-level radioactive nuclear waste is temporarily stored in the plant's complex, with a location for final disposal location as yet undecided.

Chou said that for the sake of the county's environment, he adamantly opposes the storage of nuclear waste at the plant, saying the government must attach greater importance to the problem or the county government would have to resort to "extreme measures" to combat the situation.

If the central government fails to step up the waste removal process, Chou threatened that he might not allow any additional waste to be stored at the plant, and that he would block anyone other than security personnel from entering the plant.

"The operations of the nuclear power plant might be paralyzed," he warned.

The county government would also send a team of experts to monitor the nuclear waste storage facilities in the first and second nuclear power plants, he said.

According to an Atomic Energy Council estimate, as of last month 35,000 barrels of low-level radioactive nuclear waste were stored at the First Nuclear Power Plant, while the Second Nuclear Power Plant has stored more than 44,000 barrels of low-level radioactive nuclear waste.

Taipower has a center near the Second Nuclear Power Plant which uses supercompactors and incinerators to compact or to burn waste.
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