The Control Yuan yesterday issued a correction order to Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) for the continuous leaking of water at two spent fuel pools of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant over the past three years, the cause of which the company has still not determined.
The correction about the plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Shimen District (石門) was submitted by Control Yuan members Gau Fehng-shian (高鳳仙), Chao Chang-ping (趙昌平) and Chen Yung-hsiang (陳永祥), and approved on Wednesday.
The report said the plant’s reactors No. 1 and No. 2 reactors have leaked a total of 15,369.61 milliliters and 4,829.66ml of water respectively in the past three years.
Tests conducted by the Atomic Energy Council have repeatedly found radioactive substances, such as cesium-137, cobalt-60, manganese-54 and sodium chromate, in the leakage.
Taipower has given inconsistent explanations for the leaks and has claimed that the water was not from the spent fuel pools, which is inconsistent with the Atomic Energy Council’s findings, the report said.
The Control Yuan report also reprimanded Taipower for two other problems regarding spent fuel storage:
The first is Taipower delaying for more than 10 years the construction of interim nuclear waste storage facilities, which could result in the spent fuel in the No. 1 reactor exceeding the pool’s maximum capacity in its next maintenance overhaul, which is set for November next year.
The second was that since Taipower says it lost a report on spent nuclear fuel storage and management that it commissioned from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of the US in 1987, the evaluation process the plant’s storage technology was subjected to at the time is unknown, the report said.
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