Taiwan: Scrapping nuclear power could hurt GDP, employment: CEPD report

Taipei, Aug. 12 (CNA) Putting an end to Taiwan's nuclear power plant operations could cause heavy economic damage to the country, including on its GDP and employment rates, a report released Monday by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) says.

The report shows that halting construction on the fourth nuclear power plant and allowing the three other plants to be decommissioned as scheduled would cause real gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by NT$94 billion (US$3.1 billion) while some 19,464 jobs would disappear.

The economic damage would be the end result of a rise in electricity prices and the subsequent impact on local industries, the report says.

If the fourth nuclear plant is completed, it will cost about NT$2 per degree of electricity generated, including operating fees, it says. That's lower than the NT$2.5-per-degree cost that a coal power plant would incur and much lower than the NT$4.7-per-degree cost of natural gas power generation.

If the plant is not completed, the cost of electricity from extra coal plant production could rise NT$0.04 per degree, assuming that electricity sales reach 230.6 billion degrees in the year 2018, the report says. The cost would surge by NT$0.23 per degree if extra natural gas plants were used instead.

By the year 2025, this could cause national income to contract by NT$134.5 billion while economic growth would drop by 0.58 percentage points, it adds.

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Taiwan: President touts safety of nuclear power plants

Taipei, June 25 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou touted the safety of Taiwan's nuclear power plants Tuesday, saying that there are emergency measures to prevent a disaster from happening even if they cause a power plant to be written off.

Taiwan is more concerned about Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster than other countries, Ma told a group of Japanese experts at a forum on the catastrophe resulting from the massive tsumamis and earthquake in March 2011.

After the disaster, Taiwan improved its fortifications against tsunamis at the nearly completed fourth nuclear plant in New Taipei and has in store a tested measure to permanently shut down nuclear reactors in 46 minutes to ensure zero chance of atomic disasters, Ma said at the forum in Taipei.

"We'd rather sacrifice our nuclear plants than experience any nuclear disasters," he said.

The president highlighted the merits of the fourth nuclear plant, the reactors of which will be cooled by electrical pumps and non-electrical water systems.

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Taiwan: Broken bolts shut nuclear reactor

Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), the operator of the nation’s nuclear power plants, said yesterday it has finished replacing and repairing six anchor bolts after local media reported that seven anchor bolts of the first reactor at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District (萬里), New Taipei City (新北市), were found to be fractured or cracked during annual maintenance last month.

Because the seventh anchor bolt interferes with other devices on site, it will be necessary to use alternative means to repair it, and its replacement has been scheduled for inclusion in the next major rehabilitation project, Taipower said.

The first reactor, which began commercial operation in 1981, was temporarily shut down on March 16 for routine maintenance. Earlier this month local media revealed that one of the anchor bolts was broken, two fractured, and four cracked. The report was later confirmed by Taipower

Taipower said there are 120 anchor bolts in the first reactor that secure the bottom part of the reactor to the steel-reinforced concrete substrate, and that the weight of all the components in the reactor is supported by the substrate.

It said that according to reactor designer General Electric Co’s (GE) ultrasonic examination, the other 113 anchor bolts were good enough to ensure the reactor’s safe operation. GE said the reactor would be able to resume operation once repairs had been completed, Taipower added.

The fracturing of the anchor bolts could have been caused by defective materials, the manufacturing process, environmental influences or metal fatigue, Taipower said, adding that it was difficult to determine what caused the cracks. However, initial evaluation of the fractured surface appeared to show they were caused by long-term stress instead of sudden shearing.

Taipower said it would consult other related agencies to analyze and fix the problem and add vibration sensors near the supporting base of the reactor for continuous monitoring.

However, at a coordination meeting at the Legislative Yuan on Friday, an official from the Atomic Energy Council said this was the only case of fractured anchor bolts in GE BWR-6 boiling water reactors that had ever been recorded anywhere in the world.

The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday quoted a Taipower official named Lin Te-fu (林德福) as saying GE charged US$3 million for the six newly replaced anchor bolts. The rehabilitation price was questioned by civil engineer Wang Wei-min (王偉民), who said the bolts were massively over-priced, and that as the fractures resulted from metal fatigue, all 120 anchor bolts should have been replaced to ensure safe operation.

In response to the media report, Taipower said the rehabilitation work was contracted to GE and included emergency treatment by its specialists, the bolt material, monitoring personnel, structural safety analysis and engineering design, so the price could not be compared with ordinary mechanical components.

The Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, a civic group, said it was concerned that ultrasonic examinations might not detect possible metal fatigue in the remaining 113 original anchor bolts until they cracked.

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