Japanese nuclear waste management specialist Masako Sawai yesterday identified flaws in Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) nuclear waste management, describing the contingent measures at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and a radioactive waste repository on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) in Taitung County as “ill-planned and careless.”
Sawai, a member of Japan’s Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, spoke at a forum in Taipei to conclude her three-day visit to look into nuclear facilities and exchange opinions with local experts.
After visiting the Guosheng plant, she said that the methods utilized by Taipower to incinerate low-level radioactive waste were outdated and poorly managed.
Photo: Chen Wei-han, Taipei Times
The purpose of incinerating radioactive waste is to reduce waste volume, Sawai said, adding that using a plasma torch is the common incineration method around the world, as it generates temperatures of up to 15,000oC to melt mixed waste materials into liquid for storage as high-level radioactive waste, she said.
However, according to former Institute of Nuclear Energy Research researcher He Li-wei (賀立維), the Guosheng plant and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County are equipped with diesel-fueled incinerators commonly used to burn general household waste.
Diesel-fueled incinerators can only reach temperatures of 800oC to 1,000oC and are not capable of melting nuclear waste, leading to the generation of ash and emission of airborne, radioactive residues, Sawai said.
“Higher background radiation levels in the greater Taipei area could reasonably be attributed to two nuclear plants in New Taipei City and the incineration of radioactive waste if there is no other nuclear facilities in the area. Incineration does not reduce radioactivity of waste, so power companies have to ensure that radioactive emissions are captured,” she said.
Sawai called on Taipower to conduct radioactivity tests of nuclear waste both before and after incineration to assess radiation leakage.
According to He, Taipower officials gave contradictory answers when asked if the company conducted radioactivity testing before incineration, either saying they did not know what was going on or trying to withhold information.
“Even if Taiwan shifts to a plasma torch incineration method, there will not be improvement with such careless management of nuclear waste,” Sawai said.
Meanwhile, a reservoir built above the Guosheng plant is not placed high enough to pump water into the plant’s reactors using the force of gravity during a nuclear accident if electrical power is cut, she said, adding that the water taken from a nearby brook might contain sulphur, which would react inside reactors and cause risks.
Sawai said that in Japan, low-level radioactive waste is stored in iron drums that are buried 20m underground and surrounded by reinforced concrete walls, which is “unlike the careless treatment at Orchid Island,” where damaged drums were discovered in a 3m deep repository.
It is not uncommon around the world to neglect the danger of low-level radioactive waste and store different types of nuclear waste together, although the half-lives of some nuclear waste is more than 1,000 years, easily outlasting the storage facilities they are kept in, Sawai said, calling on Taiwanese authorities to handle the issue properly.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS