Australian trade officials yesterday expressed their interest in selling uranium to Taiwan to fuel the yet-to-be-completed fourth nuclear power plant but were told by Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (
Lin, who was in Darwin to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) minister's meeting, told Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile that there could be no discussion of the power plant's fuel supply until the committee tasked with evaluating the project's necessity had presented its findings.
The No. 4 Nuclear Plant evaluation committee is expected to convene on June 15 and is made up of 20 people, including scholars, government officials and party members from across political lines.
Lin said that before he left for Australia he had presented to the Cabinet for approval a list of proposed names for inclusion on the evaluation committee, which if received would pave the way for discussions to begin next week.
The Ministry of Economic Affair's Energy Commission (
He said he hoped that by announcing the committee's findings via the Net, people would be able to clearly understand the opposing arguments on the matter.
In related news, Lin responded to questions about the chances of Australia LNG winning the contract to supply Taiwan with natural gas by saying only that the Taiwan Power Company was tendering the deal through an open bidding process, and that the government welcomes all bids that meet the necessary conditions.
While it is unclear whether Lin met with Australia LNG executives during the APEC ministerial meeting, company executives in Perth confirmed that Australia LNG vice president Craig Fekes had travelled to Taiwan last week to meet with government officials to discuss the deal.
Australia LNG is bidding primarily to sell gas that will fuel the Tatan Power station being built in Taoyuan County, but demand for liquified natural gas will likely increase following the economic ministry's recent approval for the construction of two new gas-fired power plants.
The ministry said in a statement that private independent power producers (IPP) Star Energy Corporation and Sun Ba Power Corporation have received permission to construct plants in Changhua County and Tainan County, respectively.
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