Starting up the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant would take 10 more years and cost up to NT$70 billion (US$2.27 billion), according to conservative estimates, Atomic Energy Council (AEC) Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星) told the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Plans to finish the power station in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) were officially abandoned in July 2015 under then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺).
However, they and other nuclear power proponents have since called for the plant to be completed and put into operation.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
Nuclear Myth Busters founder Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), whose referendum to abolish the Cabinet’s “nuclear-free homeland by 2025” policy were passed on Nov. 24 last year, last week filed two new proposals for referendums about nuclear power, including one seeking to start the plant.
It would take two or three more years and an additional NT$50 billion to finish building the power plant, assuming no political interference, Huang said.
Starting the plant would involve at least 10 years of preparation and expenditure of NT$60 billion to NT$70 billion, Hsieh said in response to questions from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, adding that those are conservative estimates.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) would need to file a proposal for review by the AEC if they want to unseal the plant, but it is hard to say how much time and money that would cost, he said.
In July last year, Taipower started shipping some of the plant’s 1,744 unused fuel rods back to its US supplier, and it would continue doing so, Hsieh said.
The government has not yet decided on the location of a site for the storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste and no municipality has expressed its willingness to provide space for such a site, he said.
DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said the council should step up communication with the public, as their stance on nuclear power has become an unavoidable issue for any candidate running in next year’s presidential election.
Luckily, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that was felt in Gongliao on Wednesday morning did not cause any disaster, but people have to know the potential risks of continuing to use nuclear power station, Su said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS