Experts remain divided over the costs associated with generating electricity from nuclear sources and the economic impact of potentially halting construction of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新) said it costs less to generate electricity using nuclear energy compared with other forms of power generation.
Liang made the remarks on whether to halt construction of the power plant, as has been demanded by anti-nuclear activists and other concerned citizens, at a hearing on Thursday.
Explaining the potential impact that halting construction could have on electricity prices, Liang put the respective costs per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generation from nuclear energy at NT$0.72kWh, coal at NT$1.64kWh, natural gas at NT$3.81kWh and wind energy at NT$2.64kWh, citing figures from last year.
Electricity generated using solar energy wholesales at between NT$6.7kWh and NT$9.4 kWh, Liang said at the hearing at the legislature which was attended by government officials, lawmakers and energy specialists.
However, Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) expressed skepticism about the figures provided by the government.
Hsu said the authorities have been excluding the costs of nuclear waste disposal and a possible atomic accident when calculating the cost of power generation using nuclear energy.
He called on officials to take those two factors into account.
Hsu’s views were echoed by energy expert Chen Mo-shing (陳謨星), who said the government should take into consideration the costs of nuclear waste disposal instead of focusing only on fuel costs and fixed expenses in their calculations.
Chen also questioned the perceived negative impact halting the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant would have on the economy, saying that electricity generated using alternative energy sources would be cheaper than using nuclear energy.
“How will doing away with nuclear energy adversely impact the economy given that it is actually more expensive to generate power in this way?” Chen said.
James Kuo (郭國榮), former principal engineer at American Electric Power (AEP), a major electricity utility in the US, proposed converting the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant into a natural-gas fired facility.
Kuo said that such a conversion was feasible, citing precedents including the coal-fired Zimmer Plant in Ohio and the gas-fired Midland Cogeneration Facility in Michigan.
According to Kuo, who was involved in the conversion of the Zimmer Plant, AEP and private investors decided on the project in 1984 in the wake of the Three Mile Island accident — a partial nuclear meltdown at a nuclear reactor on the island in Pennsylvania in 1979.
It cost more than US$1 billion to convert the 95 percent completed nuclear plant into a coal-fired one, Kuo said.
Work on the conversion began in 1986 and concluded in 1991, Kuo said in a report, adding that it was the world’s first nuclear-turned-coal fired plant.
Kuo said converting the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant into a natural-gas fired plant would be cheaper than continuing its construction.
Kuo estimated it would cost NT$65 billion (US$2.2 billion) to convert the plant — where the first and second reactors are more than 95 percent and 92 percent complete respectively — while it would cost NT$450 billion to finish its construction.
Construction of the plant has cost taxpayers an estimated NT$300 billion so far.
At the hearing, supporters of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant argued for its construction to continue, citing environmental concerns over a shift to fossil fuels and possible rises in electricity rates.
Chen Li-cheng (陳立誠), president of Gibson Engineers, a Taipei-based Taiwan-US engineering company, drew attention to the possible costs of not being able to meet power demands, expected to peak in 2016, as a result of halting construction of the power plant.
Chen said the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, scheduled to become operational in July 2016, is being built to offset a possible shortfall in electricity supply that year.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS