Economics Minister Lee Chih-kung says that the use of the number one reactor at Taiwan’s First Nuclear Power Plant would be a last resort. He was responding to questions from the media on Monday ahead of a report at the legislature’s Economics Committee.
Lee was referring to recent comments by Premier Lin Chuan, who has said that the reactor could be used to boost power supply during the tight summer months.
The reactor in question was shut down for repairs 17 months ago. Lee said that using the reactor would not be tantamount to reactivating it. Rather, he said, it would be used as a “parallel system”. But he said that would only come after the government exhausts all other possibilities.
“As a last resort, in the face of extreme weather, after following all of the legal procedures, we could consider using it as a so-called ‘parallel system’, in order to help economic growth," said Lee.
Meanwhile, Lee also responded to critics who questioned why the energy supply was tight despite his previous pledge that there would be no shortage. Lee said that the estimates had been conducted for “normal circumstances.”
He also said that the continual development of new technologies meant that progress had been slow on the construction of new energy facilities.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration is hoping to decommission all three of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants by 2025. Officials say the reactor in question at the First Nuclear Power Plant is still scheduled to be decommissioned in 2018.