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No safety concerns over Taiwan's nuclear plants: AEC

ROC Central News Agency

2010/07/12 18:30:32

By Cheng Yun-hsuan and Frances Huang

Taipei, July 12 (CNA) There are no concerns about the safety of Taiwan's three operating nuclear power plants, the Atomic Energy Council cited the government's latest nuclear power plant performance report as saying Monday.

"Based on the council's latest safety assessments, the six power reactors located in the country's three operating nuclear plants are running well without safety concerns, " said Chen Yi-bin, director of the AEC's Department of Nuclear Regulations.

The council has since 2006 released its nuclear plant performance report every quarter and posts it on its website to inform the public of the plants' operations and try to assuage public concerns over the safety of nuclear power.

The AEC's performance assessments are modeled on the same four-light signal scale as used by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) . A green light shows very low risk significance, a white light indicates low to moderate risk significance, a yellow light represents substantial risk significance and a red light shows high risk significance.

Chen said the newly released report shows that the six reactors were given overall green lights in the total 13 subindicators of the performance and inspection indicators.

"Basically, the very low risk significance shown by the green lights means there is no cause for concern. There is no need for the public to worry about safety," Chen said.

According to Chen, when the council first applied the safety assessment scale in 2006, the three nuclear power plants were given white signals only for two subindicators, but the flaws have since been corrected.

Chen said that ever since the improvements, the three plants have been given green lights, showing that they have performed well. He added that the council will watch the NRC's safety assessments carefully and will use them as a reference to adjust local evaluations, if necessary, to ensure continued nuclear safety.

Chen also said the three plants have made a significant contribution to local efforts in carbon emission reductions.

As of the end of 2009, the three facilities accounted for 20.7 percent of Taiwan's power generation.