The Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) has proposed an amendment to the Regulations on the Application for an Operating License of Nuclear Reactor Facilities (核子反應器設施運轉執照申請審核辦法), which would require nuclear power plants to submit plans to maintain safe operations if they seek to extend their operational licenses.
The change was proposed after the legislature in May passed an amendment to Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulations Act (核子反應器設施管制法), which requires nuclear power plant operators to apply for a license renewal if there is need to continue operation after the license expires. The renewed license would be valid for 20 years. It was made public on Aug. 1, ahead of the referendum on reactivating the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, which was decommissioned on May 17.
The new regulations, which are open to public input for two months, would require nuclear facility operators to apply for a renewal of the license and submit a restart plan, the commission said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Power Co
They must also submit radiation assessment and earthquake safety reports, it added.
The final version of the regulations could be promulgated in October, it said.
Under the regulations, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) can launch a safety inspection of the Ma-anshan Power Plant and conduct a peer review to assess if the plant satisfies the conditions necessary for reactivation. The assessment, along with the timeline, and a cost and benefit analysis of restarting the plant, must be submitted to the NSC for review, the commission said.
The restart plan must list several items, including the current status of facilities, a personnel allocation and training plan, a periodic facility maintenance and inspection plan, quality assurance and audit plans, as well as plans for restoring regulatory compliance and operational documentation.
Taipower would likely spend a considerable amount of time working on the personnel allocation and training plan, and the facility maintenance and inspection plan, as the number of workers at the plant has been reduced since its decommissioning, an NSC official said.
The emergency core cooling system does not require maintenance at the moment because the No. 3 nuclear reactor has no fuel. However, if the reactor is to be restarted, would be necessary to confirm that the related systems could be restored to their proper functioning, the official said.
Asked how long it would take to review the license renewal application, the official said it would depend on the time that Taipower needs to gather all the required documents, adding that the NSC had the experience of reviewing the license renewal application of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant.
Regarding the radiation and earthquake-resistance assessment, the official said that Taipower by default should conduct geological surveys based on new seismic data and reinforce its nuclear facilities accordingly, adding that the power company also conducted a comprehensive safety inspection after the nuclear incident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011.
The commission also hopes Taipower would revisit the measures that it had taken to bolster nuclear facilities against earthquakes and check that they still meet government standards, the official said.
Most important is that the nuclear power plant could continue to operate safely and is open to scrutiny from the public, they said.
The new regulations also require the state-run power firm to meet radiation standards set by the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulations Act, Ionizing Radiation Protection Act (游離輻射防護法), the Nuclear Materials and Radioactive Waste Management Act (放射性物料管理法) and the Nuclear Emergency Response Act (核子事故緊急應變法).
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS