In recent months Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leaders have quietly been shifting their positions on the use of nuclear power. Hints of this have surfaced in public discussions. For example, in May last year, addressing an audience of college students, Vice President William Lai (賴清德) said that in an extreme situation, some nation’s nuclear power plants could be brought back online. His spokesman later clarified that Lai was talking about events such as a wartime blockade, and the DPP issued a denial a few days later, saying that its nuclear-free homeland policies were unchanged.
A Taipei Times report in October last year showed further hedging by Lai on the nuclear issue. Lai said that if emerging technologies can handle nuclear waste and guarantee safety, nuclear power could be a viable option.
This issue has been raised several times in successive DPP administrations. In 2016, then-premier Lin Chuan (林全) mentioned restarting the then-dormant N1 reactor at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant. Nothing came of that. In 2018, Lai himself proposed restarting Unit 2 of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City. This suggestion too died after public criticism.
Photo: Reuters
NUCLEAR WASTE
Nevertheless, the idea of restarting Guosheng has remained in circulation behind the scenes. Rene Vienet, who from 1981 to 1998 was the representative of the French nuclear fuel cycle firm COGEMA (now Orano Cycle) in Taiwan and was integral in bringing nuclear fuel here, has pointed out in conversations with me that this is a meaningful possibility. Vienet told me that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had contacted the French firm Orano Cycle more than a year ago about recycling Taiwan’s spent nuclear fuel. But Orano’s Taipei Office has been closed by orders of the Orano representative in Beijing, who handles Taiwan affairs, Vienet said.
Reviving the now-dormant reactors 1 and 2 at Guosheng would several issues. The first is the nuclear spent fuel (NSF) which clog its reactors and pools. Plans for long-term storage facilities in northern Taiwan eventually fell through due to local opposition, with the already built Jinshan empty and idle, leaving Taiwan with NSF. These spent fuel storage proposals received little support from the city mayors who ran for president recently on pro-nuke platforms.
Photo: Reuters
Vienet also says that the wharf at Guosheng will have to be upgraded in order to evacuate the NSF. However, he says that is merely a few months’ work. Taiwan regulatory approval of dual-use casks for shipping NSF would also be needed, he adds. Guosheng could probably run for another decade, providing low cost electricity if all this was accomplished, Vienet has said.
The original plan for Taiwan’s spent fuel, which Vienet committed to 40 years ago when he was the COGEMA representative, was to return it to France for reprocessing. But the reprocessing plant in La Hague is nearing its capacity, making this difficult.
The obvious solution to the NSF problem is China, Vienet has suggested. Even the waste currently stored on Orchid Island could go there. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), following European models, is interested in recycling the NSF to produce mixed oxide (MOX) made of plutonium and uranium for use as fuel. According to Vienet, the cost would be about half the cost of shipping the NSF back to Europe.
Taiwan would have to clear the deal with the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) in Vienna. A major cross-strait deal of this nature would also need Washington’s approval, but that would likely be forthcoming because from the US point of view, it would help reduce tensions. There is also a model for such technical deals, he argues — the undersea optical fiber cable that connects Fujian with Taiwan.
Veinet described the idea of a nuclear-free homeland as “an empty promise” as long as 30 tons of plutonium clogs its reactors, 120 tons of high level nuclear waste remains in the suburbs of Taipei and Orchid Island houses nuclear waste.
FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE
Taiwan’s switch to a nuclear-free homeland and the closure of its aging reactors has left the nation even more dependent on fossil fuels. Power reserve margins have thinned, especially in the summer when air conditioning demand drives up power demand. Renewable energy hit a milestone over the Lunar New Year break when for a couple of hours one day it supplied 50% of demand, but that was during a period when many factories were closed and air conditioners were off.
The disastrous fourth nuclear reactor, often presented by nuclear power advocates as nearly complete when it was killed in 2014 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, was replete with problems. Numerous safety issues had been identified in the local and foreign press. Indeed, the plant was killed only when its contracts with local firms were completed, implying that the government had never intended to open it at all, but viewed it as merely a cronyism-driven cash cow.
This failure, combined with the slow growth in renewables and a lack of investment in promising technologies like geothermal — Taiwan is rich in geothermal resources — has left Taiwan with few power options but to ramp up fossil fuel imports, particularly liquid natural gas. Nuclear power advocates contend that this makes Taiwan more vulnerable in the event of war.
While this claim ignores the numerous problems and threats Taiwan’s nuclear plants create for the conduct of a war, it is entirely true that the island is terribly vulnerable to a fossil fuel blockade. Meanwhile sufficient fuel to run Taiwan’s still-operable and amortized nuclear power plants can be stored for years in the event of war.
Our national conversation has been too strongly focused on energy production. Restarting Guosheng and sending the NSF out of Taiwan for reprocessing could anchor a package of policies that includes a far more powerful focus on demand reduction, including conservation and energy use reduction in new buildings. With many buildings constructed in the 60s and 70s reaching the end of their lives and new construction necessary, the government should seize the opportunity to revolutionize construction regulations.
After all, in a nation threatened with a long energy blockade, almost everything is a national security issue.
Notes from Central Taiwan is a column written by long-term resident Michael Turton, who provides incisive commentary informed by three decades of living in and writing about his adoptive country. The views expressed here are his own.
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