Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today.
Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17.
Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing nuclear reactors from 40 to 60 years.
Regulations require that the reactor be shut down on May 17, with available electricity lasting until perhaps the end of this month, Kuo said.
If service is extended by the amendment, it would take at least 16 to 18 months to restart the reactor, he said.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啓楷) claimed that if Taiwan abandons nuclear power, electricity prices are to increase and air pollution would worsen.
Kuo responded by saying that if electricity prices increase on May 18, he would resign.
If prices do not rise, Kuo called on Chang to retract his statement.
Chang called Kuo’s promise “empty words,” saying that since the government-convened electricity rate review committee does not meet until September, prices would not rise before then, making Kuo’s statement meaningless.
At the meeting, the committee approved draft amendments to some articles of the Renewable Energy Development Act.
They include subsidies for using idle land to plant crops for biomass fuel production, to be funded by an agricultural development fund subject to approval by relevant authorities.
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