Questions have been raised again about the safety of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which is still under construction. The Atomic Energy Council asked Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to provide a list by the end of the year of the structural changes it will make to ensure safe operations at the plant, following the release of a paper by a nuclear engineer and adviser to the council that highlights construction flaws.
However, of even greater concern than the proposed start-up of the fourth plant in 2014 is that Taiwan has almost run out of space to store the nuclear waste that has been produced since the nation’s first three plants became operational. And the government has almost no feasible options for new containment sites.