Commercial operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is undergoing fine-tuning, but it will go online no later than 2017, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
It has been decided that the service life of the three nuclear power plants already operating will not be extended, Shih said, but whether the first plant would be decommissioned earlier than planned would depend on commercial operations at the fourth power plant and the stability of electricity supply from Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), which operates the nuclear plants.
Chen said the fourth plant would start commercial operations after fuel filling and test runs, and only after safety approval had been granted by the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) and international nuclear safety organizations.
In related news, the council yesterday presented its latest inspection report on the radioactive waste stored on Orchid Island (蘭嶼).
Liu Chih-tien (劉志添), a technical specialist with the council’s Fuel Cycle and Materials Administration (FCMA), said that as of September, a total of 99,307 barrels containing radioactive waste were inspected, with 380 in good condition, 33,308 rusty, 66,410 deformed, and 1,209 in mal--solidification, adding that the barrels were repainted, repacked, or re-solidified into new containers, and monitoring results showed that radiation had not been released into the environment.
FCMA director Chiou Syh-tsong (邱賜聰) said that based on the latest report, the inspection process would be completed once the remaining 570 mal--solidified barrels were re-solidified. Taipower expects to finish the job before the end of this year.
The council said results from five monitoring stations on the island all showed that radiation detected was within the range of natural radiation background variation (0.027 to 0.041 microsievert per hour).
As for Taipower’s construction of nuclear spent fuel dry storage facilities in Shihmen District (石門), New Taipei City (新北市) to hold excess spent fuel that could no longer be accommodated in the water storage tanks at the First Nuclear Power Plant, FCMA technical specialist Tang Ta-wei (唐大維) said that if the safety inspections were approved by the council, the dry storage facilities are expected to be completed by April 2013.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to