Storing nuclear waste on the main island of Kinmen is out of the question, but Erdan (二膽) — one of the smaller, uninhabited islands in Kinmen County — could be an option, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) said yesterday.
Chen, who represents Kinmen County, was responding to Democratic Progressive Party New Taipei City Councilor Lin Ping-you’s (林秉宥) suggestion that nuclear waste be stored in Kinmen, as the county voted overwhelmingly in favor of extending the operation of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant (馬鞍山) in the referendum on Saturday last week.
About 4.34 million people voted “yes” to the question: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant should continue operations upon approval by the competent authority and confirmation that there are no safety concerns?” While the “yes” votes clearly outnumbered the 1.51 million who voted against it, the referendum failed as it did not garner the support of at least one-quarter of all eligible voters.
Photo: CNA
Lin said that Kinmen’s warren of underground tunnels would make it a natural storage for nuclear waste.
Moreover, more than 90 percent of the county voted in support of restarting the plant, which means it is not against the idea of housing nuclear waste, he said.
Lin suggested re-evaluating the costs of restarting and extending the service life of the Ma-anshan plant in Pingtung County, as well as the Guosheng and Jinshan nuclear power plants in New Taipei City, and implementing a regional power pricing structure based on the service areas’ distance from the power plants.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Local governments could present the plan to the public and hold local referendums to determine whether they support continuing the operations of nuclear power plants on Taiwan proper, he said.
Chen said that while the Ministry of Economic Affairs has listed Siaociouyu (小坵嶼), 72 nautical miles (133km) from the main island of Kinmen, as a potential terminal storage facility for low-radiation waste, the presence of residents on the island would make it a controversial policy.
Chen suggested Erdan Island instead, as it is about the same size as Siaociouyu, and is closer to Kinmen than others.
The military garrison on Erdan could consider increasing the rate of rotating troops on the island, she added.
The Nuclear Safety Commission said that the nuclear site selection committee is the only one that can determine suitable locations for nuclear waste storage.
All site selection criteria are governed by the Act on Sites for Establishment of Low Level Radiactive Waste Final Disposal Facility (低放射性廢棄物最終處置設施場址設置條例), the commission said.
As of July 2012, the economics ministry had only selected Taitung County’s Daren Township (達仁) and Kinmen County’s Wuciou Township (烏坵) as candidates for final disposal facilities, it said, adding that the decision is pending the results of local referendums.
Asked about the issue, Kinmen Deputy County Commissioner Lee Wen-liang (李文良) said that, as the Kinmen County in Maanshan plant referendum had shown a low voter turnout of 11.5%, those who voted in the referendum comprised only a small percentage of the overall population of Kinmen, and could not represent the whole county.
“Kinmen residents have not collectively endorsed, or disagreed, with any opinion,” he said.
Statistics released by the Central Election Commission on Saturday’s referendum showed that Kinmen County, Lienchiang County and Miaoli County had the highest percentage of “yes” votes at 94.21 percent, 94 percent and 86.56 percent respectively.
However, the turnout rates for Kinmen County and Lienchiang County were only 12.38 percent and 19.23 percent respectively.
Additional reporting by Huang Yi-ching
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