Danger lurks in nuclear plants
Strangely enough, nuclear power stations are vulnerable when exposed to a power blackout.
Simultaneous loss of off-site and on-site power results in a failure of the reactor's safety system. The sequence of events can lead to a serious situation, -- a loss of coolant accident (LOCA).
That is what the latest accident at the Third Nuclear Power Plant (核三) was. The accident was classified as "3A site emergency" (廠區安全事故), the second-highest accident classification in Taiwan.
Station blackouts are not rare. So-called "in-depth protection" (多重防護) often fails at nuclear power plants. In the power outage at the Third Nuclear Power Plant, diesel generators on emergency standby were not activated. An assessment carried out in the US indicates that LOCAs can easily be caused by station blackouts.
We should mention that station blackouts have actually occurred at several sites especially in the US -- Alvin W. Vogtle, Nine Mile Point etc. Station blackout is one of the factors producing a critical situation for a nuclear reactor.
This time, the plant's no.1 reactor completely lost its cooling system for the reactor core which could have led to a catastrophe. Inhabitants in the southern part of the island could have been endangered.
If the reactor had been in operation at full capacity, hot steam would have flowed out of a secondary cooling system and the coolant level in the pressurized water reactor pressure vessel would have been reduced to the extent that the reactor core could have emerged because of the shortage of cooling capacity.
Fortunately, two reactors had been manually reduced in their output capacity 24 hours before the blackout happened because salty deposits from fog triggered an electricity transmission malfunction.
But the no.1 reactor was still being left at 70 percent of the rated output (hot standby), not fully shut down, when it was hit by total power loss. The temperature of the coolant was kept at 291 Celsius.
Judging from briefings by the Atomic Energy Council, coolant temperature in the reactor core appeared to have been maintained low enough.
But all the data, including the coolant level in the reactor core must be available to the public. It is essential for us to see what condition the reactor was left in.
Taipower officials should give a complete explanation if they want to claim the reactor was not exposed to a dangerous LOCA.
Last year we presented our analysis of the likely effects of an accident at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四) and told the people of Taiwan that they faced catastrophe if any reactor was involved in a LOCA.
We would like to repeat our argument that there is potential for disaster wherever nuclear power plants are in operation.
Komura Hiroo,
Department of Engineering, Shizuoka University, Japan.
Koide Hiroaki,
Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan.
Thanking the Taliban
The international uproar over the Taliban's destruction of Buddhist statues is quite interesting. It is even more interesting that Buddhists have joined the fray on behalf of preserving the statues. But Buddha was not a statue. Enlightenment is not a statue. No part of Buddhism involves worshipping tonnes of stone. The desire to preserve the statues is attachment, thirst and craving. It is ordinary suffering. Perhaps the world's Buddhists should thank the Taliban for providing an opportunity to extinguish the fires of desire. David Cornberg Taipei
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
RSS