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North coast resident sue over proposed dry storage of fuel rods (2014/05/19)

North coast residents filed a lawsuit that aims to prevent the construction of a dry cask storage facility for spent nuclear rods in New Taipei City. Last September the Atomic Energy Council approved the facility, which could be needed to keep the First Nuclear Power Plant running until its scheduled decommissioning in 2018.

Upset over the Atomic Energy Council’s decision to allow trial dry storage of nuclear waste last year, anti-nuclear groups filed a suit at the Taipei High Administrative Court.

Chang Yu-yin
Lawyer, Env. Jurists Association
These dry storage facilities are in fact just part of the First Nuclear Power Plant compound. Fuel rods are to be placed near a slope there, and I don’t think there is a chance of them returning to original storage.

Storage pools at the First Nuclear Power Plant are quickly filling up, and there soon will be no room for spent nuclear fuel rods. Instead, they will have to be moved outdoors and sealed into steel drums for what the plant calls “thermal testing.” Environmental groups, however, are not buying this proposal, saying it may be too hard to return these spent fuel rods to their previous state after the tests are completed.

Wu Huang-ching
Lawyer, Env. Jurists Association
It’s not just a test. In legal terms, it’s being referred to as a provisional arrangement when in fact there’s nothing provisional about it.

Environmental groups said that if the First Nuclear Power Plant is not decommissioned, this high-level nuclear waste will pose a significant risk to residents of northern Taiwan. Today’s action was also the first time citizens sued over the storage of nuclear waste.