Stress tests for Taiwan’s nuclear power plants are in line with EU test standards established in 2011 and 2012, the ROC Atomic Energy Council said Nov. 8, citing a report by the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group upon completing its review of the facilities.
According to the AEC, the review team put particular emphasis on the transparency of the entire process, involving all stakeholders–regulator, licensee and local nongovernmental organizations–in a participatory approach throughout the review. This resulted in the peer review being recognized by interested stakeholders, particularly by the public, as a trustworthy reference to better understand the status and prospects of nuclear safety. All key documents provided by AEC, the plants’ licensee Taiwan Power Co. Ltd. and NGOs were shared on a publicly accessible website.
The ENSRG report concluded that “strong commitment of both regulator and licensee to further improve nuclear safety has been observed by the peer review team throughout the entire review.”
The EU peer review said that, building on the results of the European stress tests and on insights from actions being taken in other regions of the world, particularly in Europe, Japan and the U.S., following the March 2011 incident at Fukushima’s Daiichi nuclear power plant, the AEC has developed a comprehensive approach to safety review and identification of actions for further safety enhancements in order to better prepare all nuclear plants in Taiwan against extreme external events and severe accidents.
“Assuming the proper implementation of these actions and based on the review against the set of Fukushima-type hazards considered within the scope of the stress tests, the EU peer review takes note that AEC has not identified any safety-related weaknesses in Taiwan nuclear plants which would require their immediate shutdown,” the report said.
“Moreover, the standards of safety applied to Taiwan nuclear plants seem to be generally high and to conform in most areas to international state-of-the-art practices,” it added.
But the report recommended further improvements in specific safety-related areas. “These improvements are justified on the basis of the fact that the risk to be hit by extreme natural hazards, such as earthquakes, flooding including tsunamis, extreme weather conditions and volcanism, is much higher in Taiwan than in many other geographical environments of the world and especially much higher than in the European countries which subjected their nuclear plants to the European stress tests.”
The ENSRG recommended further measures to ensure adequate nuclear plant design, including updating the design basis events for all natural hazards, particularly earthquakes and tsunamis; maintaining the robustness of the plants to deal with events beyond their design specifications and to ensure availability of adequate severe accident countermeasures. For example, as some plants “are located in close vicinity, combinations of events, including multi-unit and multi-site effects, should be assessed in order to identify potential cliff edge effects and related safety enhancements.”
The AEC said the ENSRG received the Council’s report on the Taiwan stress tests May 31, conducted a thorough analysis of the results and then visited Taiwan’s nuclear plants Sept. 23 to Oct. 3.
Taiwan started to use nuclear power in 1977 and has developed considerable experience in the operation of nuclear plants, the AEC said. There are three plants on three different sites in operation and one under construction. All these plants are owned and operated by the Taipower. All four plants were subject to the Taiwan stress tests and the EU peer review.
