The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) expressed doubt about the current construction and test-run conditions at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), at the council’s Fourth Nuclear Power Plant Safety Monitoring Committee meeting held on Friday, suggesting that construction should be halted if no improvement is made.
The country’s fourth nuclear power plant project was authorized in the 1980s and construction began in 1999. However, the project has seen several construction delays, frozen budgets, test-run accidents and censure from the Control Yuan.
The AEC, in charge of monitoring the developer of the nuclear power plants — state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), held a safety monitoring meeting on Friday during which recent conditions at the plant were discussed.
Talks centered on a provisional agenda brought up by committee member Lin Tsung-yao (林宗堯), a former engineer at General Electric Co.
On Thursday, Lin penned a nearly 5,000-word letter detailing several problems at the power plant, including issues with the initial design, procurement problems leading to missed deadlines, hasty construction, tests run by inexperienced personnel and ineffective monitoring mechanisms by oversight bodies.
Lin’s suggestion to discuss these problems led to heated discussion among the AEC committee members, Taipower and legislators at the meeting.
Lin expressed concern about how Taipower had overseen the fourth plant’s construction and testing processes, citing the use of several contractors, scheduling issues leading to out-of-date instruments and the contracting of employees who had little experience.
He questioned the safety of such conditions.
“It [the construction project] is contracted by three companies, and they each do testing before being brought to the power plant for assembly. This is unheard of,” he said. “Who will be in charge of the test-run, and with what procedures?”
Lin, saying that airlines always ask veteran pilots do test flights, said that the people running the tests at the nuclear power plant were inexperienced.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) also questioned the safety of the plant if it were to go into operation.
Department of Nuclear Regulation director Chen Yi-pin (陳宜彬) was doubtful of the current management and construction conditions, and said with the way problems are being handled now, Taipower’s hopes to finish construction in three years are a “pie in the sky.”
“It may be best for construction to be halted now,” said Chen, adding that if they had halted the project three years ago, they could have saved much more money.
In defense of the company, Taipower vice chairman Huang Hsien-chang (黃憲章) said: “Taipower is already constructing the seventh and eighth reactors at the fourth plant, so, don’t underestimate the capability of Taipower.”
“Each facility is basically designed to completion and is assembled according to procedures on-site and tested on-site,” he said.
Taiwpower said in a statement yesterday that it would be “open-minded” about undergoing inspections and monitoring from different parties, as well as a complete inspection of the plant.
The fuel rods will not be put in place until safety can be assured, it said.
The Green Citizens Action Alliance urged the AEC to make more information public about the nuclear power plants, so that the people can help monitor the construction process.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —