Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday temporarily shut down the nation’s nuclear energy generation as the state-run utility started regular maintenance on the remaining reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant for 41 days.
The No. 2 reactor of the nation’s only active nuclear plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) is set to be decommissioned next year. The No. 1 reactor has been offline since July.
The shutdown is to perform equipment maintenance and fuel replacement in preparation for the power plant’s next operating cycle, Taipower said in a statement.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
With support from other energy sources, Taipower would ensure sufficient power supply during the 41-day period as it aims to maintain its operating reserve margin — or spare capacity at times of peak consumption — at 10 percent during the day and more than 7 percent at night, it said.
Taiwan is poised to become the first non-nuclear nation in East Asia after the No. 2 reactor closes down in May next year, although there is a continuing debate among ruling and opposition parties as well as within society about whether to extend the service life of the Ma-anshan plant amid fears about potential power shortages.
Nuclear power last year accounted for 6.31 percent of the nation’s energy use, which is dominated by coal at 42.24 percent and liquefied natural gas at 39.57 percent, while renewable energy only contributed about 9.47 percent and hydroelectricity 1.08 percent, Energy Administration data showed.
When the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in 2016, then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) proposed a nuclear-free homeland policy by next year, setting a target energy mix of 50 percent natural gas, 30 percent coal and 20 percent renewable energy, but President William Lai (賴清德) is facing greater pressure to review the structure of the energy mix as public worries about the dangers of nuclear energy have been replaced by a fear of power shortages.
It comes as Taiwan’s power consumption is forecast to grow by an average of 2.8 percent per year through 2033, driven mainly by the ever-growing energy use in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, and as the government aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to help combat climate change.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said Taiwan is “very open” to using new nuclear technology to meet surging demand from chipmakers and the AI industry — one of the strongest signs yet that the DPP government is rethinking its opposition to nuclear energy.
“As long as there is a consensus within Taiwan on nuclear safety, and a good direction and guarantees for handling nuclear waste, with this strong consensus we can have a public discussion,” Cho said on Thursday last week.
“We hope that Taiwan can also catch up with global trends and new nuclear technologies,” the premier said, adding that he has asked Taipower to make sure that personnel related to the decommissioned reactors stay in their jobs.
“This is because we need to prepare for future nuclear technology developments and to respond to any potential legal changes in Taiwan,” Cho said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the