Environmental groups yesterday called on opposition lawmakers not to extend the use of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant by passing an amendment to Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法).
Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣) told a news conference that the plant in Pingtung County should cease operation by Saturday next week, as the act stipulates that operating licenses are valid for only 40 years and may not be extended without due application.
“The draft amendment would allow nuclear power plants to apply for extended operation at any time prior to their decommissioning date and continue the operation without safety inspections,” she said.
Photo: CNA
Model nuclear waste cans displayed at the news conference were printed with photos of 60 lawmakers of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party “to hold them historically accountable” for the amendment, particularly as they “did not dare” to record their votes when the bill passed a review at the Education and Culture Committee, Tsuei said.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairman Shieh Jyh-cherng (謝志誠) said the 14 versions of the draft amendment were not carefully reviewed by the committee and were to be handed to cross-caucus negotiations yesterday afternoon.
If the draft amendment is passed on Tuesday next week, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) would have to submit three nuclear safety reports within only one week, and the Nuclear Safety Commission would have to complete the review as well as on-site inspections within two months to extend use of the plant, he said.
However, the review process could not be completed so quickly, Shieh said.
For example, the application for extended use of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City filed in 2009 underwent 38 months of review and was not approved, he said.
While the amendment is hasty, the blame would be shifted from the opposition to the governing party in the future if the bill is passed and implemented, Shieh said, calling on the Cabinet to propose a reconsideration of the motion.
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association research fellow Kuo Chia-wen (郭佳雯) said the Ma-anshan plant has a high risk of accidents, as it is near the Hengchun Fault.
“Decommissioning the power plant after its service life reaches 40 years is the limit, which should not be extended for the public to run the risk for any longer,” she said.
Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener and attorney Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the service life of the plant should not be extended given potential cross-strait conflict.
Although the Chung-Hwa Nuclear Society has asserted that Chinese attacks on Taiwan’s nuclear facilities could be deterred by the threat of international sanctions, as it is banned by Article 56 of Geneva Conventions, the article has a paragraph that allows exemption in “special” cases, he said.
“Attacks are allowed for a nuclear electrical generating station, only if it provides electric power in regular, significant and direct support of military operations, and if such attack is the only feasible way to terminate such support,” Lai said, citing Article 56, Paragraph 2 of the conventions.
That means a Chinese attack on the plant would be allowed if it could prove that it supplied electricity to military bases and that the power supply cannot be cut off without attacking the plant, he said.
Several military facilities in Pingtung County, such as a base for the P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and the Marine Corps Recruit Training Center’s Longcyuan (龍泉) branch, get power from the plant, he added.
Green Party Taiwan social movement division director Lee Chun-hsiang (李春祥) said that extending life of nuclear power plants would be irresponsible, as future generations would have to deal with high-level nuclear waste, which would require tens of thousands of years to become harmless.
Even low-level waste would have to be isolated for about 300 years to become safe, he said.
“The quantity would be massive, as all objects exposed to nuclear radiation in a plant could become low-level waste,” Lee said, adding that Taiwan has no suitable storage site.
Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭?明) yesterday in an interview with Pop Radio said that restarting nuclear power plants is costly, time-consuming and unlikely to be a net-zero option for Taiwan due to multiple uncertainties.
For example, it would take Japan five to six years on average and cost NT$40 billion (US$1.32 billion) to more than NT$100 billion to examine a reactor in a restart proposal, he said.
Nuclear plants in Taiwan were built about 40 years ago when there was no environmental impact assessment (EIA) or fault diagnosis, Peng said, adding that a complete EIA including waste management, and geological and nuclear safety would be required to restart the plants.
Asked whether the high percentage of fossil fuels would make power supply unstable after all nuclear power plants are decommissioned, Peng said that innovation is the key to future energy solutions and Taiwan could consider building undersea power cables, as Singapore has been trying to do, or developing hydrogenic energy.
Additional reporting by CNA
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