National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) yesterday put forward plans to tear down a radiation-contaminated research building on its campus, vowing to end a decades-long dispute over potential health risks the building could pose its faculty and students.
NTHU Nuclear Science and Technology Development Center vice director Hseu Rong-jiun (許榮鈞) said the center had commenced preparatory work for the demolition, which could take place between March and September.
The work includes moving laboratories to other buildings without interfering with research and seeking contractors to undertake the project, Hseu said.
The Atomic Energy Council in the 1970s asked the university to store fissile cesium-137, which plasterers accidentally mixed into concrete used in the construction of the two-story building, he said.
He said that most of the radioactive materials mixed in the concrete had been either removed by the school’s administration or shielded with metal sheets, adding that radiation in the building had been reduced to international standards.
The demolition is “unnecessary” and the university only agreed to go ahead with it to “ameliorate public concern once and for all,” Hseu said, adding that lawmakers, the Ministry of Education and the Control Yuan have all expressed concern over the building.
The university filed a request with the council to tear down the building in 2011 and subsequently asked the Ministry of Education for necessary funds, which were granted last year, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), an advocate for the demolition, said the basement in which the fissile material was stored was flooded and workers unknowingly used the radiation-contaminated water to mix concrete.
Tien said she inspected the building with some environmentalists who had radiation detectors, which she said picked up alarming levels of radiation.
She decried the center for saying that the building was safe and demolition was unnecessary.
“If that is true, why waste taxpayers’ money to tear it down? Would you let your wives and kids live in a radioactive house shielded with steel sheets it?” Tien asked.
Anti-nuclear activist Lin Chang-mao (林長茂) took issue with the demolition, saying that it would create fugitive dust containing radiation that could be inhaled by people.
As cesium-137 has a half-life of approximately 30 years and is known to trigger genetic mutations and cancer, the university should have long since conducted health risk assessments on students and teachers who used the building, he said.
As the building does not occupy much space on the campus and should be cordoned off, Lin said.
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