Environmentalists and New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday questioned the approval process of a project to extend the lifespan of Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), demanding that the project be halted.
In the project, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) would convert the plant’s loading pools, which are normally used only during fuel replenishment, into a spent-fuel storage facility, thereby extending the plant’s lifespan, Huang said.
There are too many questions about the procurement and approval process of the NT$290 million (US$9.63 million) project, Huang said.
Taipower submitted the project to the government in August last year and the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) approved it in April, the environmentalists said, adding that it is due to be completed at the end of this month.
Several aspects of the process are troubling, such as the project having been awarded to Pacific Engineers & Constructors Ltd (PECL 泰興工程), a subsidiary of the US engineering company Bechtel Group, Huang said.
“We found that PECL subcontracted parts of the project to the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER 核能研究所), which operates under the AEC. The AEC is the monitoring agency supervising the project, but it is also a subcontractor,” Huang said.
“Is this not a conflict of interest? ... Was the whole process run in a fair and objective manner? I think most people want these questions answered,” he said.
AEC Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星) yesterday said that the conversion of the spent-fuel storage facilities, as well as monitoring and assessment, started in September last year, and that information about the project was made public on the AEC’s Web site.
“There is no conflict of interest. The monitoring and supervision work for the project and the subcontracting work are being done by two different units,” INER director-general Ma Yin-pang (馬殷邦) told reporters yesterday.
Huang said the project is illegal since it did not obtain a permit for the construction work.
“It is engineering work to convert the loading pool into spent-fuel storage, involving a change of function,” he said.
AEC officials rejected the claim, saying the work was for modification of an existing facility and such work does not require a construction permit according to the regulations on nuclear power plants.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS