Commercial operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is undergoing fine-tuning, but it will go online no later than 2017, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
It has been decided that the service life of the three nuclear power plants already operating will not be extended, Shih said, but whether the first plant would be decommissioned earlier than planned would depend on commercial operations at the fourth power plant and the stability of electricity supply from Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), which operates the nuclear plants.
Chen said the fourth plant would start commercial operations after fuel filling and test runs, and only after safety approval had been granted by the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) and international nuclear safety organizations.
In related news, the council yesterday presented its latest inspection report on the radioactive waste stored on Orchid Island (蘭嶼).
Liu Chih-tien (劉志添), a technical specialist with the council’s Fuel Cycle and Materials Administration (FCMA), said that as of September, a total of 99,307 barrels containing radioactive waste were inspected, with 380 in good condition, 33,308 rusty, 66,410 deformed, and 1,209 in mal--solidification, adding that the barrels were repainted, repacked, or re-solidified into new containers, and monitoring results showed that radiation had not been released into the environment.
FCMA director Chiou Syh-tsong (邱賜聰) said that based on the latest report, the inspection process would be completed once the remaining 570 mal--solidified barrels were re-solidified. Taipower expects to finish the job before the end of this year.
The council said results from five monitoring stations on the island all showed that radiation detected was within the range of natural radiation background variation (0.027 to 0.041 microsievert per hour).
As for Taipower’s construction of nuclear spent fuel dry storage facilities in Shihmen District (石門), New Taipei City (新北市) to hold excess spent fuel that could no longer be accommodated in the water storage tanks at the First Nuclear Power Plant, FCMA technical specialist Tang Ta-wei (唐大維) said that if the safety inspections were approved by the council, the dry storage facilities are expected to be completed by April 2013.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
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