Work begins on fuel storage facility in Taiwan

Thursday January 2, 2025

A groundbreaking ceremony was held to mark the long-delayed start of construction of an outdoor dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at Taiwan’s closed Kuosheng nuclear power plant.

Work begins on fuel storage facility in Taiwan — The inauguration ceremony (Image: Taipower)

In November 2010, Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) signed a contract with US-based NAC International Inc to supply its Magnastor spent fuel storage system to the Kuosheng power plant. The agreement provided for a complete dry storage project solution with 27 Magnastor systems (each capable of holding 87 used nuclear fuel bundles) and included engineering, licensing, hardware, facility design and construction, as well as fuel loading operations.

The facility’s water and soil conservation plan was approved by the Board of Agriculture in 2014. After nine years of deliberations, the plan to reduce wastewater pollution from construction site runoff was approved by the New Taipei City government in August last year, and construction began and the application was approved in November.

Civil construction of the facility is expected to be completed in 2026, subject to approval from New Taipei City. Once the government issues a certificate of completion, commissioning tests (including cold tests and hot tests) will be carried out and an operating license will be applied for from the Nuclear Safety Commission. Taipower hopes to obtain the license in 2027.

Kuosheng Unit 1 – a 985 MWe boiling water reactor (BWR) – was scheduled to close when its 40-year operating license expires on December 27, 2021, in line with Kuosheng’s nuclear phase-out policy. Taiwan, but was forced to close six months earlier. due to a lack of storage in the unit’s spent fuel pool.

Unit 2 of the plant – also a 985 MWe BWR – was decommissioned in March 2023 after its 40-year operating license expired.

The plant’s decommissioning plan called for the construction of a dry storage facility for spent fuel. However, construction of the facility was delayed by a dispute between Taipower and the New Taipei City government, which opposes a permanent spent fuel storage facility in its jurisdiction.

“Only after completion and obtaining an operating license can the reactor core fuel be gradually removed and decommissioning operations can be fully implemented,” Taipower said .