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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Groups urge Taipower to store spent rods indoors
Environmentalists hold up banners outside the Environmental Protection Administration’s office in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
SAFETY RISK: Taipower should consider building shared storage facilities for spent fuel rods from the Jinshan and Guosheng nuclear plants, an EIA committee member said
By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
Environmentalists yesterday urged Taiwan Power Co （Taipower） to build an indoor dry-storage facility for spent fuel rods at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District （萬里）, as the plant is to be decommissioned.
The operating permits of the plant’s two nuclear reactors are to expire on Dec. 27, 2021, and March 14, 2023, and the utility has applied for a second-stage environmental impact assessment （EIA） for its decommissioning plan. The second-stage EIA imposes stricter standards than the first stage.
The Environmental Protection Administration yesterday held an EIA committee meeting to identify the environmental conditions to be assessed, but the meeting ended without a conclusion.
At a news conference before the meeting, environmentalists said they hope the plant would be decommissioned on schedule, but added that the utility’s plan needs to be improved.
Taipower should build an indoor dry-storage facility for spent fuel rods, instead of first building an outdoor facility and then an indoor facility as planned, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association lawyer Tsai Ya-ying （蔡雅瀅） said, adding that outdoor storage entails more safety risks.
Even before the power plant was built, historical documents showed that there were coal mines, railway tunnels and sulfur springs under or near the plant’s site, Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance chief executive Kuo Ching-lin （郭慶霖） said.
Taipower needs to conduct more studies about the vicinity of the power plant, which is also close to fault lines, Kuo added.
The utility should specify its long-term plans for radioactive waste storage, otherwise the rods might be stored at the plant permanently, which would infringe upon local residents’ rights, Environmental Jurists Association member Hsieh Pei-yi （謝蓓宜） said.
The utility’s initial plans for decommissioning the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District （石門） are also unclear, Hsieh added.
EIA committee member Liu Shi-ping （劉希平） urged the utility to consider the possibility of building shared storage facilities for the Jinshan and Guosheng plants.
Of the nation’s six nuclear reactors at three operational plants, four reactors supply nearly 13.9 percent of the nation’s electricity, Taipower data showed.
One of the two remaining reactors at the Jinshan plant is being decommissioned, while the other is being maintained, the data showed.
The yet-to-be finished Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was mothballed in 2015, but nuclear proponents have been seeking to resume its construction.
The decommissioning of a nuclear plant would be completed in 25 years after it is approved by supervising agencies, Taipower said in a report.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
