Campaigners against nuclear power yesterday said they would file a lawsuit against Premier Lin Chuan （林全） over his remark that the government is mulling the restart of the No. 1 reactor at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shimen District （石門）, which they said would endanger public safety.
Lin came under attack from campaigners, who described the reactivation plan as reneging on the Democratic Progressive Party’s promise of going nuclear-free by 2025.
Green Consumers’ Foundation chairman Jay Fang （方儉） and veteran anti-nuclear power campaigner Lin Jui-chu （林瑞珠） said they would file a lawsuit against the premier today, because the reactivation would be a crime against public safety.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“The No. 1 reactor of the Jinshan plant is the most dangerous in the world, because there are about 40 used fuel rods in the reactor and reusing them might cause an explosion should the reactor be restarted,” Lin Jui-chu said.
The reactor has been shut down since December 2014, when it underwent an overhaul and refueling, during which Taiwan Power Co （Taipower, 台電） was supposed to remove 136 used fuel rods, but only removed about 90, as the reactor’s spent fuel pool could only accommodate two more rods, Lin Jui-chu said.
Taiwan’s overall power generation capacity is 48,000 megawatts, but the actual output is about 35,000 megawatts, so the problem of power shortage results from poor management, Fan said.
The government is simply not qualified to lead the nation if it cannot maximize power generation during peak seasons and arrange maintenance during off-peak seasons, he said.
“The reactivation of the reactor has been widely opposed, because there is no place to store removed fuel rods in the case of an emergency, and the nation can ensure a stable power supply with better electricity management,” Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han （洪申翰） said.
“A tender-based model for electricity pricing is all the new government — which has control over central and local governments as well as the legislature — does to reduce power consumption. It can instruct malls and hotels to reduce power consumption during off-peak hours and help industries and public institutes to boost energy efficiency. The government has not acted with discretion when there are practical alternatives to reactivating the reactor,” Hung said.
Fan and Lin Jui-chu on Monday last week sued Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung （李世光） and Atomic Energy Council Minister Hsieh Shou-shing （謝曉星） over the government’s proposal to reactivate the reactor.
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