While Power Generation Becomes a Problem, We Want to Sell the Nuclear Fuel Rods for NPP No. 4 at a Bargain Basement Price

 While Power Generation Becomes a Problem, We Want to Sell the Nuclear Fuel Rods for NPP No. 4 at a Bargain Basement Price

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

June 4, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

Recently, large-scale incidents of power outages and power trippings have been frequently reported; Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) has been busy as a fire brigade, while the government didn’t know how to explain, and finally it could not cover up the reality of power shortages. What is difficult to imagine that while power generation has become a problem, the government is still preparing to sell the nuclear fuel rods for Nuclear Power Plant No. 4 (NPP No. 4) at a bargain basement price, cutting off any hopes of de-mothballing the nuclear reactor!

Taipower spokesperson Hsu Tsao-hua said: “The nuclear-free homeland 2025 is a national policy; nuclear fuel rods must be disposed of. Taipower will act in accordance with the resolution adopted by the Legislative Yuan.” For this reason, shipping out the nuclear fuel rods has never been a financial consideration, but a political consideration! Hsu Tsao-hua said: "After the nuclear fuel rods have been shipped out, it will be impossible for NPP No. 4 to be de-mothballed." This shows that the objective of shipping out the nuclear fuel rods is that the DPP government wants to eradicate any hopes for de-mothballing NPP No. 4!

The aggregate debt incurred by NPP No. 4, exceeding NT$300 billion, will ultimately be borne by all taxpayers; no wonder many members of the public question: why discard the brand new nuclear power plant to disuse and restart the old Nuclear Power Plant No. 2? And no wonder the latest poll shows that nearly 55% of those surveyed agree to de-mothball NPP No. 4, among which as high as 70% of the young generation aged 18 to 29 support nuclear power.

Is there any way to block the government shipping out the nuclear fuel rods, leaving a ray of hope for de-mothballing NPP No. 4? Recently, several civic groups have been brewing to propose a plebiscite, to be combined with the year-end elections, focusing on “de-mothballing NPP No. 4 to replace the Shenzhen coal-fired power plant” or on “Repeal Article 95, paragraph 1, of the Electricity Act (nuclear-free homeland 2025) in order to rescue the hopes for de-mothballing NPP No. 4.

Relying only on the year-end plebiscite election apparently will not be enough to block the shipping out of the nuclear fuel rods for NPP No. 4; however, if the year-end plebiscite succeeded in repealing the “nuclear-free homeland 2025” clause, coupled with the ballots to be cast in two island-wide elections, perhaps there is still time to salvage the chaotic endgame of the Tsai government’s energy policy!

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