Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) yesterday came under fire from Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰), who accused Taipower of failing to keep its promise to relocate nuclear waste stored on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼).
The company had pledged to construct a permanent storage facility by 2021 so the waste could be removed from the island off Taitung County.
However, Hung said it has long been known that the company would indefinitely delay the relocation.
Photo copied by George Tsorng, Taipei Times
His comments came two days after Atomic Energy Council (AEC) officials told lawmakers that Taipower would not be able to relocate the nuclear waste for at least the next 10 years.
During a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, AEC Fuel Cycle and Materials Administration Director Chiou Syh-tsong (邱賜聰) said Taipower could not make good on its promise to finalize the site selection for a permanent storage facility next year and complete construction by 2021.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2012 designated Taitung County’s Tajen Township (達仁) and Kinmen’s Wuchiu Township (烏坵) as candidates for the permanent storage site for low-level nuclear waste, but local referendums on the issue have yet to be held.
Council Minister Tsai Chuen-horng (蔡春鴻) last month said that Taipower had promised to cooperate with the two county governments to hold referendums next year and, if the referendums passed, to relocate the nuclear waste in 2021.
However, Chiou said a new relocation plan submitted by the company said the site selection would not be completed for four more years and it would take another five years to construct the storage facility, meaning the relocation would not be possible until at least 2025.
Hung criticized the company over the delay.
“The new proposal to relocate the nuclear waste is also an empty promise, because Taipower knows the referendums will not pass,” Hung said.
“It has not come up with a viable solution and does not care to,” he said.
If Taipower really wanted to find a permanent storage site without triggering heated public protest, it must raise the issue in public debates and seek a general consensus, rather than seeking to dump nuclear waste in remote areas that lack resources and political power, he said.
In related news, Taipower yesterday said that a bolt in the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County could not be retrieved during the plant’s annual overhaul.
The bolt is one of 58 securing the reactor’s cover shield, and improper installation might have caused the bolt to remain within the reactor, Taipower spokesperson Lin Te-fu (林德福) said.
Taipower said it had immediately asked Westinghouse Electric, which built the plant, to handle the situation, adding that the missing bolt did not pose a safety risk.
However, the alliance said that Taipower’s inability to resolve the situation suggested that the incident was more important than the company had indicated.
It also said the company was remiss in not immediately reporting the incident to the Pingtung County Government, adding that the state-run company and its nuclear plants are a danger to society.
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