TAIPEI (Business Today/TVBS News) — "Would you want nuclear waste stored in your backyard?" This question has long divided supporters and opponents of nuclear power. The referendum on restarting the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant, also called Third Nuclear Power (核三公投), concluded on Aug. 23, and although it failed to meet the required threshold, the 4.34 million votes in favor far exceeded the 1.51 million votes against. Kinmen (金門), Lienchiang (連江) and Miaoli (苗栗) counties showed the highest percentage of votes in favor.
Seizing the momentum, KMT Legislator Jessica Chen (陳玉珍) from Kinmen proposed storing nuclear waste on the uninhabited Erdan Island (二膽島) in Kinmen. She suggested discussions could proceed under certain conditions: ensuring geological safety, establishing clear compensation plans and letting local referendums decide. Her remarks immediately triggered fierce backlash from Kinmen residents, prompting Chen to apologize the next day, and bringing the nuclear waste discussion to an abrupt halt.
High-Level Waste Final Repository Still Lacks Legal Framework
In reality, regardless of whether nuclear power is restarted, Taiwan must eventually face the nuclear waste storage problem. Although all three domestic nuclear power plants have ceased operations, more than 21,000 bundles of nuclear fuel rods have accumulated from power generation operations. These are currently stored temporarily within each plant, but ultimately require a permanent disposal site. Nuclear waste has different disposal methods based on radiation levels.
Low-Level Radioactive Waste (低放射性廢棄物), referred to as "low-level waste" (LLW), primarily consists of radiation-contaminated clothing and tools. These undergo compression and solidification treatment before being placed in temporary storage facilities and eventually transferred to final disposal sites. In 2012, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (經濟部) announced Taitung's Daren Township (台東達仁鄉) and Kinmen's Wuqiu Township (金門烏坵鄉) as recommended candidate sites based on the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Final Disposal Facility Site Selection Act (低放射性廢棄物最終處置設施場址設置條例). However, the initiative failed when local governments refused to hold referendums.
High-Level Radioactive Waste (高放射性廢棄物), referred to as "high-level waste" (HLW), consists of spent nuclear fuel rods from power generation. After removal from the reactor core, these must cool in spent fuel pools for about 10 years, then be transferred to dry storage facilities for about 40 years. Finally, they are moved to permanent disposal sites where they remain underground for 100,000 to 1 million years until radiation levels decrease to safe values.
According to Taiwan Power Company's (台電) "Spent Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Plan" (用過核子燃料最終處置計畫書), "potential host rock characteristic investigation and assessment" for the high-level waste final disposal site should have been conducted by 2017, with "candidate site selection and approval" to be completed by 2028, and construction finally completed by 2055.
Although Taiwan Power Company submitted reports including the "host rock investigation and assessment" to the Nuclear Safety Commission (核安會) in 2017, which have completed review, less than three years remain for final disposal site selection. Currently, only administrative rules exist without legal regulations, making local communication potentially difficult to implement.
In response, the Ministry of Economic Affairs established the Radioactive Waste Disposal Project Office (放射性廢棄物處置專案辦公室) in April this year to begin drafting regulations for high-level waste disposal site selection. The draft is expected to be released in September and submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval by year-end.
Unwilling to wait for the official version, civil groups including the Environmental Jurists Association (環境法律人協會) and Green Citizens' Action Alliance (綠色公民行動聯盟) took the lead in July by releasing a civilian version of the "High-Level Radioactive Waste Site Selection and Disposal Act" draft. Environmental Jurists Association standing director Chang Yu-yin (張譽尹), a full-time lawyer, observes that despite the Low-Level Waste Site Act being passed in 2006, no site has been selected in 19 years, indicating inadequate system planning that fails to promote local discussion.
Civil Groups Draft Bill Promoting Multi-Stage Communication
The core spirit of this civil draft bill aims to strengthen relevant mechanisms based on lessons from the failed low-level waste site selection experience. First, the Ministry of Economic Affairs selected Taitung's Daren Township and Kinmen's Wuqiu Township in 2012, but by law, these locations needed to pass local referendums to become candidate sites and proceed to subsequent environmental impact assessments and feasibility studies. With Kinmen County refusing the referendum and Taitung County lacking local referendum autonomy regulations, the Low-Level Waste Site Act provided no solution, resulting in a 13-year deadlock that hindered further discussion.
"Initially, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Executive Yuan didn't negotiate with local governments about holding referendums, ultimately leaving Taiwan Power Company to handle it, but as a business entity, how could it have the administrative discretion of a government agency?" Yeh believes the central government has a responsibility to take the lead, help obtain local consent or more actively propose complementary measures for compensation to avoid reaching an unsolvable impasse after site selection stalls at the local level.
For this reason, the civil draft bill includes a "fallback mechanism," meaning if local governments fail to hold referendums, the central government should conduct them instead. Chang emphasized that in the past, county and city mayors' refusal to hold referendums almost cut off all discussion, but whether to establish a site should be decided collectively by residents.
The draft bill further requires government agencies to respect diverse forms of local consent, including voting and indigenous tribal meetings. Given the complexity of nuclear waste issues, a "two-way learning communication platform" should be established with local communities to regularly inform residents about the latest information and potential impacts, while allowing localities to express local needs or compensation proposals.
Also, based on low-level waste site selection experience, localities becoming candidate sites after just one referendum with insufficient communication and oversimplified procedures only intensifies local opposition. "It's like a matchmaker suddenly bringing a stranger and asking you to spend the rest of your life together, with only one chance to choose. If there's not enough understanding and no room for hesitation, failure is inevitable," Chang says.
Therefore, the civilian draft incorporates "multi-stage consent rights," requiring thorough communication and local consent at four stages before final site selection is completed: geological drilling investigation, potential site announcement, recommended site and final site, before proceeding to the next phase.
This is like providing local residents with opportunities for "staged breakups." For instance, if a region approves geological drilling through a referendum but later develops concerns due to unreasonable compensation, residents can veto subsequent plans in the next stage through another referendum. "Allowing residents to clarify local development directions at each stage also helps the government understand local needs and make rolling adjustments to related measures," Chang suggested.
Learning From Japan: Incorporating Local Voluntary Incentive Funds
To encourage local participation, the civil draft also references Japanese experience by establishing a "voluntary compensation mechanism." Japan established legal foundations for high-level waste site selection as early as 2000 and published a "scientific specific map" of potential areas in 2017, encouraging local governments within these areas to apply for site selection at the "municipality" level with incentive funds provided.
The investigation is divided into three stages: "literature survey," "overview survey" and "detailed survey." Local governments volunteering for the "literature survey" can receive 2 billion yen (about NT$410 million) in subsidies, while those applying for the "overview survey" receive 7 billion yen (about NT$1.45 billion) in subsidies. Suttsu Town (壽都町) and Kamoenai Village (神惠內村) in Hokkaido and Genkai Town (玄海町) in Kyushu have already begun literature surveys.
The Taiwan civil draft bill also suggests following Japan's planning, proposing that after the government announces several "potential sites," the announced counties and cities can voluntarily apply to become "recommended sites" for the next stage, receiving NT$1 billion in incentive funds. If underground drilling experiments succeed, they can receive an additional NT$9 billion in incentives, aiming to increase participation incentives for areas with potential.
Regarding suggestions in the civil draft, Tu Wen-ling (杜文苓), director of the Radioactive Waste Disposal Project Office, said Japan has a nuclear industry with greater nuclear waste processing needs, making local incentives relatively proactive. Taiwan's nuclear back-end fund covers everything from power plant decommissioning to nuclear waste treatment with limited funds, making it difficult to match Japan's incentive model. However, she agrees that the fallback mechanism for localities not holding referendums, indigenous tribal consultation consent forms and two-way communication learning platforms are directions the official draft could reference.
As the government prepares legislation, Chen also reminds that nuclear knowledge education is key, urging the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Nuclear Safety Commission to actively engage with local communities to help people concretely understand nuclear waste safety and risks, such as the distance at which radiation has effects and how much shielding high walls provide. "Otherwise, with everyone now 'turning pale at the mention of nuclear power,' it's impossible to rationally begin discussions," she laments.
Where Taiwan's nuclear waste will ultimately be located remains undecided. Looking at international experiences, this will be a lengthy discussion process. The government's first step must begin with legal foundations, establishing sound local participation and compensation mechanisms, and implementing nuclear knowledge education to possibly find a final destination for nuclear waste. ◼
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This article is excerpted from the No. 1498 issue of Business Today (今周刊). Click here for the Chinese-language version of this story:
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