Peers Agree: Taiwanese Nuclear Plants Pass Stress Tests

The European Commission announced last week that safety standards applied in Taiwanese nuclear power plants are generally high and comply with international state-of-the-art practices.

The peer review—performed by the European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators’ Group (ENSREG)—did, however, strongly recommend further improvements in view of Taiwan’s vulnerability to natural hazards, such as earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis, and volcanoes. Suggested improvements included the installation of higher tsunami protection walls and the use of updated methods and data to evaluate seismic and flooding risks.

The European Commission represents the interests of the European Union (EU) as a whole. It proposes new legislation to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and it ensures that member countries correctly apply EU law. Following the nuclear accident in Fukushima, the commission and the ENSREG agreed to conduct voluntary tests on the EU’s 143 nuclear reactors. These tests were based on a common methodology and assessed both natural and manmade hazards, such as airplane crashes and terrorist attacks.

Many other countries and territories also conducted comprehensive nuclear risk and safety assessments, based on the EU stress-test model. These included Switzerland and Ukraine, both of which fully participated in the EU stress tests, as well as, Armenia, Turkey, Russia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and Brazil.

Taiwan has been generating power from nuclear plants since 1977. With three plants currently in operation and one under construction, all have undergone the stress tests and consequently the EU peer review. The Commission is now holding discussions with some of the other countries regarding possible peer review of their stress tests as well.

—Aaron Larson, associate editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine)