nuclear-news

Taipei insists that its many thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods are safe

Atomic body dismisses report on nuclear safety Taipei Times Staff Writer, with CNA , 9 Feb 12, The Atomic Energy Council yesterday dismissed a French newspaper’s report that raised doubts about the security of facilities storing spent reactor fuel, saying that spent fuel has always been kept under safe storage and strict management.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported on Tuesday that spent fuel pools at the Jinshan (金山) Nuclear Power Plant in Shimen District (石門), New Taipei City (新北市) and Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District (萬里), New Taipei City, have become saturated and could therefore be severely hazardous in the event of an accident.
However, the council said spent fuel pools at the two plants are not saturated, and the state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), which operates the two plants, will establish dry storage facilities to relieve spent fuel levels in the pools.
At the first nuclear plant, which is 28km north of Taipei, 2,870 and 2,744 bundles of spent fuel rods are stored in the plant’s two pools, each of which can accommodate a total of 3,083 bundles, data compiled by the council on Jan. 2 showed.
While the pools are almost full, an on-site dry storage facility will be completed in 2013 and spent fuel from the pools will be transferred to the new facility to clear the way for further spent fuel, council spokesman Peng Chih-wei (彭志偉) said….. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/02/10/2003525139

February 10, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Taiwan, wastes