Residents living near two nuclear power plants in Taipei County yesterday voiced their concerns about the construction of two warehouses for radioactive waste.
At a press conference held by DPP Legislator Chen Mao-nan (陳茂男) at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, representatives of Chinshan and Wanli townships, where the two plants are located, accused the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) of covertly planning to turn the two sites into final repositories for radioactive waste.
The residents said they were dismayed with the lack of transparency in Taipower's decision-making to build the warehouses.
The two warehouses will be used to store low-level radioactive waste generated by the two plants. Each can store up to 40,000 barrels of waste and are expected to open in 2004.
"Taipower is taking advantage of Taipei County residents after it failed to overcome opposition from residents of Wuchiu and Orchid Island," said Wanli Township Chief Tsai Tsang-ming (
An interim repository on Orchid Island, where 98,000 barrels of radioactive waste are stored, opened in 1982.
Responsibility for managing the repository was transferred from the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) to Taipower in 1990 under an agreement which required all the waste to be moved by the end of this year.
One of the sites being considered is in Wuchiu, Kinmen County. But the Environmental Protection Administration has still not approved Taipower's environmental impact assessment for the site because of environmental and national security concerns.
Taipower's failure to find a suitable permanent resting place for the waste stored on Orchid Island has generated resentment among the island's residents, who demonstrated on the streets there and in Taipei earlier this year.
Chinshan Township Chief Yu Chung-yi (
"Since construction began in February last year, no checks on fire-fighting equipment have been carried out," Yu said.
The townships' residents, accompanied by Chen, yesterday reported the case to Control Yuan member Chao Chang-ping (
In response to the accusations, Taipower officials yesterday said the company would cooperate with any Control Yuan investigation.
Jeng An-hong (
"Our project for building the two warehouses, first raised in 1995, has nothing to do with recent setbacks in building a final repository," Jeng said.
He said it was impossible for Taipower to transfer waste from Orchid Island to the two ware-houses for permanent storage and that Taipower would use the warehouses to take the backlog of waste stored at its nuclear power plants.
About 35,000 barrels are stored at the First Nuclear Power Plant and 38,000 barrels at the Second Nuclear Power Plant.
Taipower will ensure that waste from the power plants in future would only be stored temporarily at the warehouses before a permanent location is found, Jeng said. Each nuclear plant generates about 600 barrels of low-level radioactive waste annually.
"We are still doing our best to find a place to build a final repository for radioactive waste," Jeng said.
Regarding the residents' concerns about fire-fighting equipment at the construction sites, Jeng said Taipower had submitted the paperwork to local government agencies, but they were still processing it.
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