The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) yesterday faced criticism over a proposal by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to store radioactive waste in an outdoor facility, with lawmakers and experts raising concerns over possible radiation leaks, as well as challenging the council and the company over a delayed report about an incident last month at a nuclear plant.
Taipower completed an outdoor, dry-cast storage facility at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shimen District (石門) last year, with steel cylinders surrounded by a concrete shell designed as a deposit for spent fuel rods with the plant’s fuel pool nearing capacity.
Operations at the new storage facility are pending approval from the New Taipei City Government.
At a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee in Taipei, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) asked whether the Jinshan facility is the safest and most optimal storage option the council had surveyed.
AEC Minister Tsai Chuen-horng (蔡春鴻) said the council could only ensure that the facility meets safety standards, it could not guarantee that it is the safest or most optimal of facilities.
“It is not the council’s obligation to assess how a facility might compare with others, but rather to investigate whether Taipower’s proposals are safe,” Tsai said. “The council has approved several of Taipower’s proposals, but it is up to the company to decide which to adopt.”
Ho called on the council to reconsider all possible storage options in addition to those proposed by the company, adding that the council should not just be a rubber stamp for Taipower.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) asked why Taipower did not immediately report an incident at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Ma-anshan (馬鞍山), Pingtung County.
The company failed to retrieve a screw from reactor No. 2 during a scheduled maintenance on Nov. 12, but the company did not notify the council or the Pingtung County Government until Nov. 16.
Tsai said the incident did not pose an immediate risk and therefore there was no need to report it straight away.
The council can only ask that Taipower make immediate reports of emergency incidents, Tsai said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) said the council should revise its regulations to demand that the company immediately report every incident, adding that Taipower did not immediately report a fire in April at the Pingtung plant to the local government.
Former Institute of Nuclear Energy Research official He Li-wei (賀立維) said the retrieval of a screw from a nuclear reactor might increase the risk of a radiation leak.
Dry casks should be stored in an indoor facility to maintain a constant temperature and avoid possible terror attacks, while Taipower’s casks — which weigh more than 200 tonnes each — would be welded shut, making it impossible to either open the casks to further process the nuclear waster or relocate the casks in the event of nuclear disaster, He said.
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