The No. 2 reactor at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) experienced a malfunction that triggered an automatic shutdown early yesterday morning, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said.
The exact cause of the incident is still being investigated, but there is no risk of a radiation leak, the state-run utility said.
“While we are still investigating the exact cause, the automatic shutdown was safely executed and there is no danger from radiation,” Taipower spokesman Chang Ting-shu (張廷舒) said.
Photo: CNA
The malfunction occurred at 6:33am, triggering an emergency shutdown, taking 985 megawatts of power offline, Chang said.
The control rods have now been fully lowered into the reactor and Taipower would apply with the Atomic Energy Council for the unit to be restarted as soon as the malfunction is resolved, he said.
However, it would take three days before the reactor reaches maximum output, Taipower said.
“The malfunction took place early in the morning during low power demand and it was possible for us to dispatch our reserve capacity immediately, leading to no loss of power [to the grid],” Chang said. “With the nation’s hydropower system full after the recent rains, we should be able to cope while the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 2 reactor remains offline.”
The operating reserve ratio is expected to remain “green,” or above 10 percent, in the coming days, but might dip into “yellow” territory, or 6 to 10 percent, during nighttime peak periods before the reactor is restarted, Taipower said.
As the mercury spiked close to 38°C, the nation’s electricity consumption reached 38.84 gigawatts (GW) at 1:50pm yesterday, with an operating reserve ratio of 10.17 percent, the company said.
The No. 1 reactor at the Guosheng power plant went offline on July 1 after the facility ran out of space to store spent nuclear fuel.
The No. 2 reactor is expected to keep generating power until March 2023, when its operating permit expires, Taipower said.
Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海科技集團), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, yesterday said it was confident that its performance would improve in the second half of this year. Investment plans related to electric vehicles (EVs) in different parts of the world are expected to gradually start coming to fruition, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told reporters after leading a new year’s prayer at the company’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城). Major challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war continue to affect the global economy. However, Liu said that he expects a turnaround in
Singapore is seeing an influx of ultra-wealthy families from China looking to protect their wealth from a government that increasingly views them with suspicion. The Chinese Communist Party’s recent crackdowns on tech billionaires and tax-shy celebrities, as well as three years of “zero COVID” policies, have led many rich Chinese to look for a safe haven. Nervous over the fate of their fortunes, some of the country’s mega-rich have since booked tickets to Singapore, insiders said. The key Asian financial hub ticks all the boxes for relocating tycoons. Singapore has been ruled by one party for the past six decades, and labor strikes and
Sex worker Nina relies on an apartment in the Turkish city of Istanbul as a relatively safe space to meet clients, but the 29-year-old is worried about making enough to cover the rent after the landlord doubled the price. As a surge in inflation fuels a housing crisis in Turkey, LGBTQ+ sex workers like Nina say landlords are forcing them to accept huge rent hikes for fear of being evicted. Nina, who uses the pronouns they and them, worries about how they will pay the increased monthly rent of 8,000 Turkish lira (US$425.11) on top of rising bills. “There are gas, electricity, water,
SHARES DOWN: The top 10 companies all decreased in market value last year, due to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising interest rates and global inflation Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the top spot among the largest companies in the Asian supply chain in terms of market capitalization, Digitimes Research said. Citing its Asia Supply Chain Market Cap 100 rankings for last year, the research firm last week said TSMC’s market cap was US$378.45 billion, the highest among Asian suppliers, although it dropped by nearly US$200 billion during the year. The 34.3 percent fall in TSMC’s market cap was the largest decline of any company in the survey last year, but was typical of how many top-ranking companies fared. The top 10 in Digitimes’ rankings all saw