Water leakage at Taiwan's N-power plant poses no threat: AEC
ROC Central News Agency
2011/03/19 22:04:09
Taipei, March 19 (CNA) Water leakage at a local nuclear power plant posed no environmental pollution or safety threats, although it remained unclear whether the leak was being caused by cracks in the plant's spent fuel storage pools, an official said Saturday.
Chen Yi-pin, head of the Department of Nuclear Regulation of the Atomic Energy Council (AEC), said water leakage alarms tend to go off at such pools whenever there is leak of 10 cc or more.
Considering that there is 1,500 tons of water in a nuclear reactor's spent fuel storage tank, the leak was too small to cause harm to the environment or humans, he said.
"Water from the country's No. 1 nuclear power plant is not allowed to drain into the soil or contaminate the environment, " Chen stressed.
Even if water escaped from the plant's spent fuel storage tanks, it would not cause any safety threats, he said.
Nevertheless, he said, the AEC could not confirm at the moment state-owned Taiwan Power Co.'s (Taipower's) conclusion that the water leakage at the fuel storage tanks had not been caused by cracks in those tanks but rather were probably a matter of waste water recycling problems.
Responding to a newspaper report on Saturday that water containing radioactive materials was leaking from storage tanks for spent fuel rods at Taipower's No.1 power plant, a senior Taipower executive said at a news conference that there was no likelihood that cracks had opened in the storage tanks as a result of erosion.
But Chen said the AEC could not back Taipower's judgment at present because while the storage pool associated with the plant's No. 1 reactor was no longer sending off leakage alarms, the pool affiliated with its No. 2 reactor had sent off alarm signals earlier this month.
Moreover, Chen said, radioactive materials, including cesium-137, cobalt-60, manganese-54 and silver-110, had been detected in one out of every 10 tests on water in the No.2 reactor's storage tank.
Chen said the AEC had informed its U.S. counterpart -- the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) -- of a water leakage from the nuclear power plant's spent fuel storage tanks.
The AEC and the NRC, both of which signed a cooperation agreement in January, were scheduled to convene a meeting in May to discuss water leakage problems, Chen said.
"After that meeting, we may get an answer about the water leakage issue at our No.1 nuclear power plant," Chen said.
He noted that the U.S.-based Duane Arnold nuclear power plant also once encountered similar water leakage problems. When the company applied for permission to extend the life of its nuclear power generators for another 20 years, the NRC gave the green light because water leaking from the plant's spent fuel storage pool was very little, Chen said.
Compared with the U.S. plant, the amount of water leaking at Taipower's No. 1 plant was a lot less, Chen said.
Taiwan has three operational nuclear power plants and is building afourth one. Three of the plants are located in northern Taiwan's New Taipei City, and one in Pingtung County in the south. (By Lin Shu-yuan and Sofia wu) enditem /pc
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