The decommissioning unit 1 at Taiwan’s Maanshan NPP, also known as the Third Nuclear Power Plant, in Pingtung County will begin as scheduled on 27 July when its operating licence expires, according to Cabinet spokesperson Chen Shih-kai. Maanshan is the only operating NPP in Taiwan, but the operating licences for its two 936 MWe pressurised water reactors expire in July 2024 and May 2025.
Chen was responding to a media query about the Cabinet’s stance on whether to extend the service of the Maanshan plant. Currently, the Legislature’s Education & Culture Committee, which oversees the Nuclear Safety Commission, is reviewing a series of opposition Kuomintang (KMT)-proposed amendments that would allow nuclear power plants to bypass the licence renewal process and continue operating. Current law requires NPPs to apply for licence renewals 5-15 years before expiration.
“Even if the law is amended, the plant would not be able to generate electricity right away,” Chen said, referring to possible changes to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act and subsidiary regulations.
Chen said that while there has been much discussion about the use of nuclear power recently, “the government’s stance is clear… the problems of nuclear waste and safety need to be solved and there must be public consensus.”
He added: “Taiwan is a country that has a relatively big population with limited open space. Finding places for interim storage and final disposal of nuclear waste is not an easy task, and it is a fact that there has been much difficulty in communicating with the local governments and the public [about where to place the waste].”
Taiwan had three NPPs, each with two units, at Chinshan, Kuosheng and Maanshan and two others under construction at Lungmen. Chinshan 1 was closed in December 2018, followed by Chinshan 2 in July 2019. Kuosheng 1 was closed in May 2021, six months before its licence expired, after plant owner/operator Taipower said its used fuel storage was almost full. Construction of two units at Lungmen has been suspended.
In 2016, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected on a platform of establishing a “nuclear-free homeland” by 2025. This required Taiwan’s six operable power reactors to be decommissioned when their 40-year operating licences expired and was passed into law as an amendment to the Electricity Act. Although a referendum in 2018 obliged the government to cancel the amendment, the policy has remained in effect.
