Taiwan Energy Debate to Pit Ma Against Nuclear Power Opponents

By Yu-huay Sun

April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan will debate ending an eight- year ban on new nuclear reactors to help curb emissions from electricity generation, potentially pitting President Ma Ying- jeou against critics who say atomic power is too dangerous.

“How we’re going to deal with nuclear energy is up for discussion,” Yeh Huey-ching, head of Taiwan’s energy bureau, said in an April 7 interview in Taipei. A two-day state conference on energy starting tomorrow will bring together 205 government officials, scholars, executives and environmentalists and resolutions will be adopted as government policy.

Taiwan’s biggest power company favors building more reactors to help meet Ma’s pledge of cutting carbon emissions, reflecting the global resurgence of nuclear energy in countries from China to the U.S. Opponents say the risk of accidents from earthquakes and radioactive leaks is unacceptable.

“Nuclear power is an inevitable option because we want to cut carbon emissions,” Tu Yueh-yuan, chief engineer of state- run Taiwan Power Co., said on April 2. The company has room to add as many as 10 reactors at its existing nuclear power plants, she said. To authorize that, Ma would have to reverse a decision by his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian.

Chen’s government said in February 2001 the island will eventually end the use of atomic energy after nuclear plants in operation and one under construction are retired.

Lifting of the ban would benefit companies such as General Electric Co. and Toshiba Corp.’s Westinghouse Electric Co. that have supplied reactors and turbines to Taiwan. Reducing coal- fired generation may cut imports of the fuel from Indonesia and Australia, which accounted for 80 percent for shipments in 2008.

Nuclear ‘Option’

Ma, who took office last May, has pledged to cut carbon emissions to 2000 levels by 2025.

“Nuclear power should be considered an option among many energy forms,” Wang Yu-chi, President Ma’s spokesman, said by telephone on April 8.

China, India, Japan and South Korea are among Asian nations planning more reactors to reduce reliance on coal.

China will increase nuclear generation capacity to 70,000 megawatts by 2020, 75 percent higher than a previous target. India seeks to add 60,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2030, or 10 percent of total generation. Japan plans to build 13 more reactors by the end of 2017, while South Korea intends to build 12 plants by 2022, according to industry and government data.

“So far there’s no reliable way to handle nuclear waste,” said Wang To-far, a former lawmaker who plans to attend the policy conference. “Using nuclear power may also slow the development of renewable energy.”

Taipower Reactors

Taipower, as the island’s biggest electricity producer is known, operates six reactors and is building two more. Six of these are in the Taipei county, home to 17 percent of the island’s 23 million residents.

Atomic reactors provided 26 percent of Taiwan’s electricity in February, coal-fired generators 45 percent, while gas-fired stations supplied 18 percent, according to Taipower’s Web site. The balance comes mainly from oil, hydropower and wind turbines.

Taiwan sits along faults between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian Continental tectonic plates where quakes occur as the plates push together, spurring concern over safety of nuclear power plants. In September 1999, a temblor centered 150 kilometers south-southwest of Taipei killed 2,500 people.

‘Dangerous Proposition’

“Taiwan’s demographics make nuclear a very dangerous proposition,” said Robin Winkler, a Taipei-based lawyer and former member of Taiwan’s environmental impact assessment commission. “If the issues of safety and waste could be solved, I could consider nuclear as an option, but to date, whether Taiwan or anywhere else, those issues haven’t been resolved.”

In Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Co. indefinitely shut the word’s biggest atomic station after an earthquake caused radiation leaks and a fire in July 2007. In August 2004, five workers were killed by a steam leak at a plant operated by Kansai Electric Power Co.

Taipower stores spent fuel rods at its plants, including the No. 3 nuclear power station, six kilometers (3.7 miles) from the beachside town of Hengchun on the island’s south. Less radioactive waste is kept on Orchid Island off the southeastern coast, where residents’ protests have forced the utility to search for a new dump site.

Taiwan should develop renewable sources, such as solar and wind power, instead of nuclear reactors, to help reduce carbon emissions, said conference delegate Wang.

Discussions at the conference will cover renewable power, prices and an energy tax, the energy bureau’s Yeh said. The government wants renewable energy to account for 15 percent of Taiwan’s electricity generation capacity by 2025, from 8 percent now, he said.

To contact the reporter on the story: Yu-huay Sun in Taipei ysun7@bloomberg.net