The No. 1 reactor at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) is to be shut down today after producing power for 40 years, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said yesterday.
The generator’s 40-year operating permit expires at the end of this year, but as the facility’s spent fuel storage is full, the 985 megawatt reactor would be shut down earlier in preparation for a major overhaul of the facility, the utility said.
Due to the shortage in storage space, Taipower reduced the plant’s power generation capacity by about 20 percent since late February.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
The overhaul is expected to take six months and decommissioning of the No. 1 reactor would begin thereafter, Taipower said.
The plant’s second reactor is scheduled to operate until March 2023 when its operating permit expires, it said.
The administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is committed to phasing out nuclear power generation by 2025 and replacing it with renewable sources of energy. It aims at an energy mix of 20 percent energy production from renewable sources, 50 percent from liquefied natural gas and 30 percent from coal.
Nuclear power accounted for about 11.2 percent of the nation’s energy production last year, down from a peak of 16 to 19 percent.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said that other energy sources, including natural gas, and solar and hydro power, would in the short term make up for the energy produced by the No. 1 reactor at the Guosheng plant.
Taipower first proposed the reactor’s decommissioning three years ago, gaining approval from the Atomic Energy Commission in October last year.
The plan included the construction of a dry storage facility for used fuel.
However, the establishment of the facility might be delayed by a dispute between the New Taipei City Government and Taipower.
New Taipei City has yet to issue a permit for the storage of the reactor’s fuel rods, as it is opposed to a permanent spent fuel storage facility within its jurisdiction.
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
AI SPLURGE: The four major US tech companies have lost more than US$950 billion in value since releasing earnings and outlooks, while equipment makers were gaining Four of the biggest US technology companies together have forecast capital expenditures that would reach about US$650 billion this year — a flood of cash earmarked for new data centers and all the gear within them. The spending planned by Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Microsoft Corp, all in pursuit of dominance in the still-nascent market for artificial intelligence (AI) tools, is a boom without a parallel this century. Each of the companies’ estimates for this year is expected either near or surpass their budgets for the past three years combined. They would set a high-watermark for capital spending
IShowSpeed, a 21-year-old African-American influencer, has raced a cheetah, leapt with Maasai warriors and drawn huge crowds in a month-long tour of Africa that has also busted cliches about the continent. The YouTube and Twitch star’s tour, which started on Dec. 29 last year, took him to 20 countries, showing his tens of millions of followers a different side of Africa as he visited a diamond mine in Botswana, discovered Ethiopia’s rich cuisine and attended the Africa Cup of Nations football final in Morocco. IShowSpeed — born in Cincinnati, Ohio as Darren Jason Watkins Jr. — is one of the most followed
RSS