State-own Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) faces a fine of NT$15 million (US$498,000) from the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) for altering the construction design of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), without authorization.
The council said this was not the first time Taipower had been fined for making design changes without permission from the original designer, General Electric Co (GE), thus the council decided to increase the penalty for repeated violations.
In 2008, Taipower was fined NT$4 million, but this time the fine was the highest possible amount stipulated in the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Control Act (核子反應器設施管制法).
According to the act, alterations to the design must receive approval from the original designer before proceeding.
According to the council’s Department of Nuclear Regulation Director Chen Yi-pin (陳宜彬), there was disagreement between Taipower and GE because of the periodic suspensions and resumptions of construction work on the plant, so the council had allowed Taipower to amend the design first, but required the state-owned utility to promise to get permission from GE afterwards.
“Since Taipower and GE solved the problem in early 2009 and GE has started its work again, we feel the alternative measures should no longer have been carried out and Taipower should have returned to the normal procedure of getting GE’s permission before continuing with construction,” Chen said.
Chen said the council received a document from the Control Yuan’s National Audit Office late last year that said Taipower had continued to make changes without obtaining GE’s permission in advance and so it decided to slap Taipower with a heavy fine.
The council finished its investigation, submitted its report to higher-level authorities, communicated with Taipower and also gave it one last chance to explain the violations late last month. Saying Taipower had failed to offer a convincing explanation, the council’s screening committee, during a meeting on Oct. 30, meted out a fine of NT$15 million for the design changes it deemed a second-level violation of the law and other regulations.
At the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Taipower vice president Hsu Hwai-chiung (徐懷瓊) said: “We acknowledge there have been some imperfections in procedure on our part ... as for the penalty, we think it’s a little too heavy.”
According to Taipower spokesman Roger Lee (李鴻洲), the utility explained the design alterations to the council during a meeting last month and provided data to prove it had obtained the necessary approval from GE.
Saying the utility asked the council for an extension of the measure, but had received no response, Lee said Taipower’s decision to proceed with the changes without an answer was certainly an “administrative flaw,” but not one that constitutes a major violation.
Additional reporting by CNA
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A magnitude 6 earthquake last night at 9:11pm struck off northeastern Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The earthquake’s epicenter was located in waters between Toucheng Township (頭城) and Turtle Island (Gueishan Island, 龜山島), about 22.1km northeast of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 112km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Yilan’s Dongshan (冬山) and Nanao (南澳) townships and Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. It measured 3 in other areas of Yilan and Taipei, as
RSS