Drawing references from European nuclear safety standards, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union yesterday urged the government to take the possibility of a nuclear crisis in this country more seriously and to map out concrete contingency plans.
The group issued the call at a press conference held to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the catastrophic incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
The group proposed its own list of suggestions titled “What Taiwan’s Nuclear Power Plants Can At Least Do.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Put together by Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, the report reviewed the situation of Taiwan’s nuclear plants and referenced the nuclear safety standards of -European countries.
While in favor of a non-nuclear future for Taiwan, the group listed six suggestions in an effort to improve the safety of the nation’s existing nuclear power plants.
The suggestions involved issues concerning the structure of the nuclear reactors, management of the waste fuel rods, monitoring and emergency electricity sources for the power plants, facilities related to the plants, the geographical environment, as well as natural hazards and risk evaluations.
Hsu, in her analysis of the radiation leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan last month, pointed out that the loss of electricity was a crucial issue.
She suggested that the emergency power system of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants should be able to sustain the plants for at least 72 hours, instead of the eight hours maximum capacity that was in place at Fukushima.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), showed pictures of victims from the Chernobyl disaster, saying that while official reports in 2000 estimated that the damage was US$120 billion, unofficial estimates put the cost at US$358 billion.
Tien urged the government to promise a 100 percent safe nuclear power policy, “or else nuclear power is not an option for Taiwan.”
In related news, members of the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance yesterday afternoon staged a protest outside a public hearing held by the Ministry of Economic Affairs regarding the review of the nation’s energy policy.
The protesters demanded that the ministry apologize for allegedly lying to the public about power shortages if nuclear power plants were to be shut off.
The protesters showed statistics calculated from data released by the ministry to prove their claim that if all the power plants were shut down immediately, the nation would still have nearly 10 percent of its electricity stored in backup.
The protesters also questioned why the latest draft energy policy presented by the ministry was almost the same as the one brought up in February, before the Fukushima crisis.
Inside the venue, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) told the hearing that the government pays exceptional attention to the issue and has taken actions to re-evaluate the safety of the nation’s nuclear power and energy policy after the Fukushima crisis.
He reiterated that fuel rods would not be put into the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四), which is under construction in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮), unless its safety is assured. The government welcomes inspection and monitoring from the public, he added.
Apparently unconvinced, opponents of nuclear energy stood up in their seats shouting repeatedly: “Taiwan does not have a power shortage,” as Wu walked out of the auditorium following his speech.
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