The construction of outdoor casks for the storage of high-level radioactive waste for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), the reactor units of which stopped operating in 2021 and last year respectively, is to start next year after getting approval from the New Taipei City Government last week.
However, the spent nuclear fuel could not be moved out for dry cask storage, a process that needs to be undertaken when a power plant is decommissioned, and guarantees safer storage than putting spent fuel in the liquid pool, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) Vice President Tsai Chih-meng (蔡志孟) said on Friday.
The city government declined Taipower’s environmental protection proposal for several years, leading the company to file a lawsuit to the Taipei High Administrative Court in 2020, which moved the case to mediation earlier this year.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
The mediation was completed in June and the city government approved Taipower’s “soil and water conservation plan” for dry cask construction this month, Tsai said.
More time would be needed for preparation before the construction officially begins early next year, Tsai said, adding that the spent fuel is expected to be moved out of the pool starting in late 2026.
At the same time, indoor dry casks are also scheduled to be built for more storage space, a Taipower spokesperson said.
While there have been calls to extend the life of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant following the completion of the outdoor dry casks, Tsai said the casks would allow for no more than five years of plant operation.
Indoor dry casks would have to be built for longer operations, but the extension of the plant’s license would have to be approved by the legislature and the necessary safety checks completed, he said.
The bid for the construction of indoor dry cask storage facilities for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant is expected to take place next year, Taipower said.
Meanwhile, outdoor dry cask storage facilities for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shimen District (石門) were built in 2013, but never used after the city government discovered unapproved design changes.
The city government fined Taipower for the infraction and declined to approve a resubmitted proposal that included the design changes. Mediation was completed in April after Taipower filed a lawsuit, and the spent fuel is expected to be completely moved to dry casks by early 2026.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS