Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) has received approval for plans to store spent fuel at the decommissioned Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and demolish the plant, the company said.
The company began the process of decommissioning the plant in July 2019, but had not been able to start work on removing spent fuel or demolishing it due to the lack of a storage facility, it said.
Original plans had called for a dry storage facility to be built on the site in 2017, but the work was halted due to disagreements with the New Taipei City Government over the company’s plans for water and soil conservation at the site.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
On April 1, it reached an agreement with the city government through administrative mediation, it said, adding that New Taipei City on May 10 approved its changes to plans for water conservation and an outdoor dry storage facility.
The company said it started working on the dry storage facility on June 12, and now that its plans for water and soil conservation were approved, it would start working on them in January.
It would start removing spent fuel rods at the end of 2026, it added.
The company’s plans for the decommissioned plant would follow a 25-year time frame, which would involve storing spent fuel rods, dismantling the reactors, and restoring soil and water quality at the site, it said.
Throughout the process, it would continually monitor radiation levels and would ensure the site’s safety before building a park for public use on the site in the final two years of the plan, it said.
In light of the delay it encountered in building the dry storage facility, it would need to adjust the schedule for the plant’s demolition to ensure safe conditions for workers, it said.
Equipment outside of the plant including the steel tower, gas turbine generator and waste trench had already been dismantled, it said, adding that it would complete the dismantling of the main generator, turbine building and peripheral equipment before the end of the year.
Separately, the company said that plans for the decommissioning of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant (馬鞍山) in Pingtung County were approved by the Nuclear Safety Commission in April last year, and that the plans were in the environmental assessment stage.
It expects to start working on decommissioning the plant on May 17 next year after the operating license for the plant’s No. 2 reactor expires, it said.
Later this year it would invite bids for the construction of an indoor dry storage facility for the plant, and expected to begin removal of spent fuel rods from the plant within five to six years, the company said.
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