Taiwanese Regulator OKs Kuosheng 2 Restart

The Taiwanese nuclear power regulator, the Atomic Energy Council, has approved the restart of the 951 MWe Kuosheng 2 reactor that has been idled since a fire in May 2016, putting the final decision in the bureaucratic process with the parliament.

Kuosheng NPPThe Legislative Yuan, as the parliament is called, has the final say in the restart for the reactor that has an operational license that allows it to run until 2023, according to Nuclear Engineering International, which noted the fire was started by a short circuit.

Nuclear power is in flux in Taiwan with construction of two new ABWR reactors at Lungmen suspended in 2014 in response to the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear generating station in Japan.

Kuoshen owner Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) applied for a restart in February after considerable refurbishment efforts. It is one of Taiwan's six nuclear reactors at the Chinshan, Kuosheng and Maanshan power plants. However, Chinshan 1 and 2 have also been idled since June 2017, when a typhoon toppled a nearby transmission tower.

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