A supporter and opponent of a referendum question on restarting construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) staked out their positions during a televised presentation yesterday.
Nuclear power advocate Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), who initiated the vote to unseal the mothballed plant, said that should it be cleared for use, it would save the government NT$60 billion (US$2.16 billion) in renewable energy costs, and would pay for itself after five years.
Writing off the plant altogether would bankrupt Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), he said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Election Commission via CNA
Each quote the government provides on restarting construction varies, Huang said, citing statements ranging from NT$80 billion to NT$200 billion, adding that Taipower and National Tsing Hua University researchers have pegged potential revenue at NT$50 billion over five years while providing 20 billion kilowatt-hours of power per year.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is “distorting the truth” by saying that commercialization plans are not supported by safety test data and cannot be approved by the Atomic Energy Council, as the ministry on Aug 20, 2014, said that the first unit completed safety inspections and met official standards, Huang said.
The council has not conducted a review on the system’s trial run data, produced before the plant was sealed and not equivalent to data that could be provided by further tests, he added.
Regarding the logistics of restarting a mothballed nuclear power facility, Huang said that the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant in Tennessee had its second unit successfully restarted in 2016 after being sealed away for 28 years.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) argued against restarting construction on the plant.
Tseng said that Huang was mistaken in citing “trial run data,” as Huang was referring to a ministry-conducted safety inspection.
The council has conducted 187 tests of the plant since 2007, 32 of which have failed, Tseng said.
“Saying the plant has completed safety tests is a lie,” he said.
Huang did not address post-processing and storage of nuclear waste in Taiwan, Tseng said, adding there is no consensus regarding how to store the current nuclear waste supplies.
Tseng said that a Central Geological Survey Center report from 2019 showed a 93.9km long fault line off the coast of where the unfinished nuclear power plant now sits.
“We must carefully consider the effect of the fault line becoming active, and if it could affect a fault line under the plant,” he said.
Yesterday was the first of five televised discussions on a national four-question referendum scheduled for Dec. 18.
The next four presentations are scheduled for Nov. 18, Nov. 24, Dec. 2 and Dec. 11, and can be watched at https://web.cec.gov.tw/referendum/hearing/110rmedia.
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