Four foreign nuclear energy experts are visiting to review local nuclear power generation facilities, but have not yet made any suggestions for improvement, state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) said yesterday.
“The experts arrived in Taipei on Feb. 6 from Germany, the UK, France and Japan, and are scheduled to stay until Saturday,” Taipower spokesman Lee Hung-chou (李鴻洲) said.
As a member of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), Taipower is entitled to seek technical support missions from the London-based organization, Lee said.
Taipower can apply for up to four WANO support missions per year since it has four nuclear power plants, Lee said, adding that the company applied for two missions last year.
Taipower has conducted thorough safety checks and taken measures to strengthen safety at its nuclear plants following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan last year. Lee said the experts were invited to review those new measures.
Over the past few days, he said, Taipower staff have taken the four experts to the country’s three operational nuclear power plants and the fourth one under construction.
According to a bilateral confidentiality agreement, Taipower cannot disclose any opinions or suggestions expressed by WANO specialists without the organization’s prior consent, Lee said.
“As the experts are still in the process of inspection, they have not yet made any definite suggestions,” Lee said, adding that Taipower will unveil the content of their final report only after obtaining the WANO’s agreement.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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