April 13 (Bloomberg) - Taiwan Power Co., which operates three plants of atomic power of the island and built a fourth, interrupted plans for additional reactors and will examine the options after nuclear accident of the Japan by the earthquake on March 11.
Since the utility known as Taipower cancelled a tender to hire consultants on the addition of two more reactors at its nuclear plant No. 4 under construction, Chief Engineer Roger Lee said yesterday. The Government has also frozen a review of the application of the public service of the State to extend the licence of its no. 1 plant, which operates for 33 years, said Lee. "Taipower would rather take longer and spend more money to the public do not worry,"Lee said in an interview in the capital Taipei. The company is studying how to strengthen the capacity of the stations to resist earthquakes and tsunami, he said.Taiwan and the Japan are on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an earthquake-prone area. Three factories of Taipower, as the station of Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster age of 40 years North of Tokyo, are near the ocean. They provide about 20 percent of the power of the island and are also close five kilometres (3 miles) of a fault active quake, Lee.The No. 2 factory is 22 km from Taipei and no. 3 is a national park and six kilometres from the coastal city of southern Hengchunsite of several resorts.ImportsThe of energy had considered as adding ten reactors at existing sites to reduce the dependence on coal and gas, Vice-President Taipower Hsu Hwai-chiung said.Taiwan imports about 99% of its energy needs. The island has begun commercial operations at its first reactor in 1978, after the world of energy crisis. In 1985, the island built six reactors at three sites. "Nuclear power as a source of reliable and sustainable energy, we have to take risks"with the potential for earthquakes and tsunamis to assign to Taiwan, said Lee."Provided generators 24 per cent of electricity from Taiwan in February, to 3 percent of the combustion of petroleum, 23% of gas and 41% of coal, depending on the site compared.The utility runs reactors 93% of the time, compared to a seventh for solar panels and a third for wind turbines, Lee said. "It is not easy to replace nuclear power with renewable energy,"he says. Taipower may increase natural gas generators to compensate the impasse plans of expansion of reactors, he said.Emissions CutsPresident Ma Ying-jeou, who took office in May 2008, is committed to reduce emissions to the levels of 2000 by 2025. Officials, including the former first Minister Liu Chao-shiuan, called nuclear option to help reduce carbon.Taipower applied to the authorities there are almost two years to extend the life of its central nuclear No. 1, which is allowed to operate for 40 years, according to Lee. "Now the expansion plan is suspended,"he says. Taipower may take measures, including the grout, of anchoraging and putting water doors more high to strengthen safety in nuclear power plants, after March 11 temblor in the Japan he said.The earthquake of magnitude 9 off the coast of the northeastern coast of the Japan and the subsequent tsunami led to what Kan Naoto Japanese Prime Minister called the worst crisis since the second world war.The total amount of radiation released from the crisis at the Tokyo Electric Power Co. Fukushima plant may eventually exceed that of the Chernobyl disaster, an official Tepco said yesterday.The disaster of Chernobyl RadiationThe combined 1986 at the nuclear plant of Chernobyl Ukraine widespread as high as 9 kilometers of debris in the air and radiation released 200 times the volume of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a 2006 report commissioned by the expansion of the Party.Taipower Green nuclear Europe is at a standstill since the 1980s. The beginning of its nuclear station No. 4, first proposed in 1980, has been delayed five times at the end of next year for reasons of security and the rising costs of.The company can grow this additional return under the orders of Government to stricter inspections before allowing the fuel load, Lee, said last month, after the accidents of Fukushima. Construction 93% completed at the end of February.After March 11, temblor, issued Taiwan a tsunami warning its northern coast, where are located the nuclear stations 1, 2 and 4 of the Taipower. Plants have not been damaged by the waves.Advanced boiling reactor water station of General ElectricThe No. 4, designed by General Electric Co., have been installed, Lee said. Taipower is cable and inspect the instruments on the site, he said. Change the design of the reactor is not necessary that they are "already the most advanced", said Lee. The company does not have a new date of departure from the station.Taiwan sits on the faults or fractures geological, between the sea of the Philippines and Eurasian Continental tectonic plates. Earthquakes are more likely that the plates push together, stimulate concern perhaps dangerous zone for nuclear power plants. In September 1999, a temblor centered 150 kilometers southwest of Taipei killed about 2,500 people.In December 2006, Taipower stopped its central station nuclear No. 3 for the inspection, after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck near southern Taiwan, killing at least two people. The station is facing potential tsunamis of the pit of Manila in the South China Sea, said Lee.Taipower averted fatal incidents in its nuclear plants and takes measures, such as the design of the standard response to several disaster proceduresto prevent crises similar to that of Fukushima, he said. Each of the stations Taipower has three alternative generators more than Dai-Ichi complex, he said. "If there is something that we have not quite done, we will improve, Lee said.-With the help of Janet NGO in Taipei. Writers: Todd White, John Viljoen
To contact the reporter on this story: Huay Yu Sun in Taipei to ysun7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash to aprakash1@bloomberg.net
Aerial view of the nuclear plant of 
April 11 (Bloomberg) - Bloomberg Zeb Eckert