County commissioner wants action on waste

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on June 7, 2006. It reports that the Taipei County Government recently urged the state-own Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) to speed up the removal of nuclear waste from the first and second nuclear power plants in the county.

An oil leak recently occurred at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Taipei County's Gungliao Township, which led to river and sea pollution. This is despite the fact that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is still under construction.

At present, there are three nuclear power plants in Taipei County. High- and low-level radioactive nuclear waste is temporarily stored within the power plants, as a location for final disposal has not yet been decided.

For the sake of its environment, the Taipei County Government adamantly opposes the storage of nuclear waste at the power plants. According to officials of the county, the government needs to attach greater importance to the problem, or the county government will have to resort to "extreme measures" to combat the situation.

Specifically, if the government fails to step up the waste removal process, then the Taipei County Government may not allow any additional waste to be stored at the nuclear power plants. Anyone other than security personnel will also be blocked from entering the nuclear power plants, so that the operations of the plants may be paralyzed. Meanwhile, the Taipei County Government also plans to send a team of experts to monitor the nuclear waste storage facilities in the first and second nuclear power plants.

According to an estimation made by the Atomic Energy Council, as of May 2006, 35,000 barrels of low-level radioactive nuclear waste were stored at the First Nuclear Power Plant. More than 44,000 barrels of low-level radioactive nuclear waste were stored at the Second Nuclear Power Plant. Currently, Taipower has a center near the Second Nuclear Power Plant that uses supercomputers and incinerators to compact or burn waste.