Spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor decommissioned yesterday in New Taipei City must be stored properly, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) told a news conference.
The first reactor at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) was decommissioned, but the issue of how to store the plant’s 816 spent fuel rods remains to be solved, Chen said.
State-run Taiwan Power Co spokesman Hsu Tsao-hua (徐造華) on Tuesday said that until a proper storage facility is built, the rods would have to stay in place at the facility and the plant’s safety systems must be kept running.
However, Green Consumers’ Foundation chairman Jay Fang (方儉) said that the dry cask storage facility at the plant is in a dangerous location and the rods should be moved to a safer location nearby.
Members of the foundation, along with representatives from the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union and the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, joined Chen at the news conference, lending their voices to calls for the safe storage of the spent fuel rods and demanding that nuclear power be completely phased out.
While some people in Taiwan have been advocating the continued use of nuclear power, they have not addressed the issue of nuclear waste storage, Chen said, calling this an irresponsible approach to the issue.
“You want it to eat something, but you don’t want it to shit anything out,” Chen said.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairman Liu Jyh-jian (劉志堅) said that he respects the outcome of a referendum passed on Nov. 24 that rejected the government’s policy to phase out nuclear energy by 2025, but believes that policy on such an important matter should not be decided by just one referendum.
About 20,000 bundles of fuel rods have been used by the nation’s three nuclear power plants to date, and existing storage facilities are already full and sealed off, he said, adding that Taiwan is not suitable for nuclear power as there is insufficient land to properly handle nuclear waste.
Former Citizen Congress Watch chairman Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said that the referendums on nuclear power only mean that legislative amendments requiring an end to nuclear power usage by 2025 have been nullified, but do not mean that nuclear power must be used.
The government would still work toward the goal of ending the use of nuclear power plants in accordance with Article 23 of the Basic Environment Act (環境基本法), he said.
Fang said that calls for the use of nuclear power to supplement “green” energy sources are naive and overlook the inherent dangers of nuclear power.
The tsunami and resultant disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in 2011 forced the evacuation of people living within a 250km radius of the plant, he said.
If a similar disaster were to occur at the Jinshan plant, it would require a 1,000km-radius evacuation, given the amount of fuel rods stored at the plant, he said.
Evacuations would potentially be needed in Shanghai as well, depending on wind activity when the disaster occurs, Fang added.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS