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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Reactor closure may strain supply
A Taiwan Power Co Department of Power Supply employee monitors operations in an undated photograph. Photo: CNA, provided by Taiwan Power Co
PRECAUTION: The Pingtung County reactor’s generation capacity of 950,000 kilowatts accounts for more than 2 percent of the nation’s total daily power consumption
/ Staff writer, with CNA
A reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township （恆春） was shut down yesterday morning after a cooling system failure, which could strain power supplies this week, Taiwan Power Co （Taipower, 台電） said.
Power generation at the plant was interrupted at 1:10am after the No. 2 reactor’s cooling system developed problems, Taipower spokesman Lin Te-fu （林德福） said.
Plant managers shut down the reactor as a safety precaution and said that there was no risk of a radiation leak, Lin said, adding that the company is trying to determine the cause of the problem.
The reactor has a generation capacity of 950,000 kilowatts, accounting for more than 2 percent of the nation’s daily energy consumption of 36 million kilowatts, Lin said.
With the reactor shut down, the nation’s power supply could come under pressure after today, he said.
Taipower has estimated that electricity consumption nationwide would reach 36.1 million kilowatts per day this week, except today, and the operating reserve margin, a key indicator of power supply, would fall to 5 percent.
Under the company’s supply warning system, an orange warning means reserve margin is below 6 percent, and red and black warnings mean that reserves are below 900,000 kilowatts and 500,000 kilowatts respectively.
A red warning is expected to be issued this week. A black alert usually means power rationing.
Taipower said that chairman Chu Wen-chen （朱文成） and president Chung Bin-li （鍾炳利） would hold meetings with management to discuss contingency plans, adding that it has taken measures to deal with the problem, including using thermal generators at its Dalin Power Plant in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District （小港） and activating several backup generators.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
