TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Prospects for the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant in Taiwan improved considerably on Monday (Jan. 15) following a ruling by Taiwan's High Court.
Taiwan's Council of Grand Justices ruled that an earlier decision by Taiwan's executive branch to unilaterally stop construction of a controversial $5.6 billion plant had "procedural flaws." It is now likely that the decision will be remanded to the island's legislature, which had already approved the project.
The decision is a boost for Taiwan's high-tech industry, which is in need of a steady power supply. Just last weekend, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. chairman Morris Chang said he was concerned about power shortages to TSMC's new 12-inch wafer fabrication facility in the Tainan Science Park. Power is also a nagging concern among the hundreds of companies at the Hsinchu Science Park, which experienced about 40 power shortages and outages in 2000.
The nuclear power plant now under construction has been a lightning rod of contention in Taiwan for more than 20 years. It has become a high-profile case for the environmental movement, so it was uncertain the project would be finished despite a growing need for power. The plant was more than 30 percent complete when a stop-order was issued by the new government of the Democratic Progressive Party, an environmentally friendly party with an anti-nuclear platform.
At the time, the state-owned Taiwan Power Co. said it had already spent $1.4 billion and signed contracts for another $1.4 billion, of which at least $819 million would have had to be paid if the project was scuttled.
In the battle for public support, Taiwan Power and the former Nationalist government rolled out numerous arguments to complete the plant, the most compelling being that the island's energy consumption will double by 2020. Nuclear energy now accounts for 10 percent of Taiwan's power.
