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Taipower accused of
quashing risk
UNSAFE: The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which
sits on the northeast coast, could be inundated by a 24m wave, and its control
room and generators are in the basement
By Lee I-chia / Staff Reporter
State-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) is hiding the truth about the possibility
of severe tsunami damage to nuclear power plants in Taiwan, Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said yesterday.
Citing a research report commissioned by Taipower and conducted by National
Cheng Kung University in 1983 about the potential effects a tsunami would have
on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, Tien said the report suggested that a
magnitude 8.21 earthquake could induce a tsunami of 13.20m in height, while a
magnitude 8.49 earthquake could induce a tsunami of 24.81m in height.
Despite the data, Taipower, which operates the nation’s nuclear power plants,
continued to refer to an underestimated tsunami height when planning the Fourth
Nuclear Power Plant and insisted that the power plants could withstand waves of
12m in height, Tien said at a press conference in the legislature yesterday.
IN THE BASEMENT
She also expressed concern over the main control center and emergency cooling
systems being located in the basement of the power plant, which she said would
be doomed to flooding should a sizable tsunami occur.
Chen Wen-shan (陳文山), a geology professor at National Taiwan University, who also
spoke at the press conference, said the data from 1983 neither took into account
where the epicenter of an earthquake might be, nor the underwater geology in the
area, which affects the scale of tsunamis.
Taipower should include data collected by advanced simulation technology when
re-evaluating the safety of its nuclear power plants, he said.
Based on historical records and geological research results, Lee Chao-shing
(李昭興), a professor of applied geosciences at National Taiwan Ocean University,
said Taiwan could not rule out being hit by major earthquakes that could induce
major tsunamis, such as the one that hit Japan last month.
According to a data collected from the tsunami in Japan last month, Lee said
that if a tsunami were to strike southwest or northeast Taiwan, where all the
nation’s nuclear power plants are located, the wave height would rise
dramtically because of the shallower seawater.
In response, Taipower official Chang Wu-hou (張武侯) said the data from 1983 was
the result of a poor simulation done with insufficient substantive data.
NEW EMPHASIS
He added, however, that Taipower had emphasized nuclear power safety after the
Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan, and had asked for a thorough
re-evaluation of the possible damage tsunamis could do to the nation’s nuclear
power plants.
Taipower has asked National Central University, which is conducting an ongoing
re-evaluation project of Taiwan’s entire coastline, to first focus on the threat
of tsunamis in areas where the nation’s nuclear power plants are located.
The National Science Council commissioned the re-evaluation project, which is
due to be finished in a few months, he said, adding that Taipower would not put
nuclear fuel rods into the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant until its safety is
guaranteed.
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