Taiwan Eyes Military Sites for Nuclear Waste

The state-owned Taiwan Power Company said on February 16 that it was speculating on storing its low-level nuclear waste on military-controlled islands. The consideration posits a shift in company planning brought about by dimming prospects for shipping the waste to North Korea. A Taipower official mentioned military sites in the Penghu island group, Pengchiayu, and other islands off the coast of mainland China as possibilities. Taipower reportedly also is maintaining contact with several communities on Taiwan that have withdrawn their initial expression of interest in storing the waste. The company is offering U.S.$ 93 million to any community that accepts a storage site on their land.

Taipower and North Korea signed an agreement in 1996 for the storage of up to 200,000 drums of radioactive waste in abandoned mine shafts near Pyongsan, about 55 miles north of Seoul, South Korean's capital. However, the collapse of North Korea's economy, and consequently the country's capability to safely store the waste, has given Taiwan Power second thoughts

Taiwan now stores 170,000 barrels of low-level nuclear waste. Of them, 97,000 are on Orchid Island, 210 miles south of Taipei. Island residents have demanded the waste's removal.