Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and the New Taipei City Government have struck a deal to allow the activation of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility, ending an 11-year legal battle, the state-owned electricity company said yesterday.
The dry storage facility, which was designated to be used for the disposal of materials from the deactivated plant in the city’s Shihmen District (石門), could not be completed since the city government had not approved its water and soil conservation plans and delayed the completion date.
Last month’s earthquake in Hualien, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, has underscored the dangers of storing spent fuel in reactor cooling pools and the need to build dry storage facilities that can hold high-level radioactive waste, Taipower said in a news release.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The company reached a mediated settlement with the city government on April 1 and submitted relevant documents on April 18 for approval, it said.
The improvements to the facility’s retaining walls and drainage systems would begin a month after the publication of the construction notice, Taipower said.
The improvements would be finished in three months and following that, the storage facility would be activated in four to six months, it said.
Plans for another dry storage facility for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) are stuck in legal limbo, Taipower said.
Taipower hopes to achieve an agreement with the city government regarding the power plant, it added.
The Jinshan plant’s storage facility could not be used for storing the Guosheng plant’s spent fuel due to difficulties in transporting high-level radioactive waste and the legal problems that changing the stated purpose of the storage site might cause, Taipower said.
The most significant issue with nuclear energy is safety, and the city government took time during negotiations to ensure that no danger would stem from the facility’s proximity to river systems and the stability of the grounds, New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Liu Ho-jan (劉和然) said.
The city government hopes that Taipower would build the storage facility according to the specifications and furnish the water and soil conservation plan on time, Liu said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that the ministry supports the negotiations.
For public safety reasons it necessary to ensure that spent fuel rods could be removed from the nuclear power plant, Wang said.
The ministry is mediating the dispute between Taipower and the New Taipei City Government over the proposed dry storage facility for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant, she said.
Taipower is not able to begin the construction of the nuclear waste depository due to the disagreement, Wang said.
The ministry hopes to resolve it soon, she added.
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