Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) said yesterday that North Korea should provide it with an exclusive nuclear waste dump in line with international requirements to facilitate the enforcement of a disposal contract between the company and Pyongyang.
Taipower was responding to a South Korean news report that Pyongyang has threatened to take it to an international court if the company fails to deliver nuclear waste to North Korea for permanent disposal by the end of June.
The company signed a contract with Pyongyang through a private broker in January 1997 that allows it to ship up to 60,000 barrels of low-grade radioactive waste from its three nuclear power plants to North Korea for permanent disposal. But the contract has not been implemented due to strong opposition from South Korea and international environmental groups.
According to the news report, Pyongyang's national nuclear security supervisory commission recently sent a letter to Taipower protesting the delay and describing the company's complaint that the North Korean facility is flawed as an "excuse."
The commission reportedly said that the storage facility had been completed long ago and that North Korea has remodeled two military ships to deliver the waste.
A Taipower spokesman said the contract does not defined a time-frame and it clearly stipulates that it will not take effect until both governments agree to all the terms.
"In other words, the contract will be implemented only after our government issues an export permit and the North Korean government issues an import license," the spokesman said.
While Pyongyang has issued an import permit, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) has yet to issue an export permit to Taipower.
"The AEC has expressed the hope that North Korea will provide Taipower with an exclusive storage facility that meets international safety requirements for nuclear waste disposal," the spokesman said.
According to international regulations, nuclear waste should not be stored in the same facility with other waste. The Taipower spokesman claimed that the North Korean facility does not meet this standard, but he did not elaborate.
Taipower has been seeking a location to store its low-grade nuclear waste as its contract to use Orchid Island as a nuclear waste dump expired in 2002.
Taipower has signed a contract with Russia to treat its low-level radioactive waste, but environmental issues have also dampened plans to ship its the waste to Russia.
Taipower has been evaluating 11 possible sites in Taiwan for a new storage facility but no decision has been announced.
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