Operations at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant, in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) and the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) might be suspended in June next year when their spent fuel rod pools are full, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said.
In a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the Education and Culture Committee at the legislature in Taipei yesterday, AEC Minister Chou Yuan-ching (周源卿) said the nation’s two oldest nuclear plants might become inoperative earlier than expected as their storage capacity is almost full.
Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) asked how long the two plants could still be operational if New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) blocks a proposal to build extra repositories at the two plants to temporarily store used fuel rods — meaning the two plants could only operate at limited capacity.
“The spent fuel rod pool at Jinshan plant’s reactor No. 2 is expected to be full by June next year and the pool at Guosheng plant’s reactor No. 2 is expected to be full at about the same time. The two reactors would have to shut down without a nuclear waste storage facility,” Chou said, adding that the reactors could be reactivated if Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) is able to find storage facilities.
The two reactors are scheduled to be deactivated in July 2019 and March 2023 respectively.
The Jinshan plant No. 1 reactor, which has 15 months storage capacity, has been out of operation since December 2014 pending a probe into a loose handle found on a fuel rod cask. Its reactivation requires the AEC and Taipower to report to the Legislative Yuan, which Chen said would likely be blocked, dooming the prospect of the reactor’s reactivation before its scheduled decommissioning in December next year.
Storage capacity at the Ma-anshan (馬鞍山) Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County is enough for the plant to operate throughout its designed life span of 40 years, Chou said.
“Technically, there is no difficulty decommissioning nuclear plants before the design life span ends and it depends on government policy to decide on such matters,” Chou said, adding: “The AEC supports a nuclear-free policy.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) said public participation and democratic process must be an integral part of the selection of a nuclear waste repository, calling on the AEC and Taipower to be more transparent and open nuclear waste issues to public discussion.
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