Taiwan plans to keep its three existing nuclear power plants operating for 20 more years after their current licences expire in a bid to help control global warming, an official said Thursday.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), which runs the ageing plants, said that extending their lifespan would serve the purpose of curbing the use of fossil fuels and rein in the emission of carbon dioxide.
"Nuclear power has become another option for the world, and for Taipower as well, in the struggle to reduce greenhouse gases," a company official told AFP, asking not to be named.
The comments came after US President Barack Obama unveiled plans to build the first new US nuclear plant since the notorious Three Mile Island accident over 30 years ago.
Taiwan's government is currently reviewing a Taipower application to extend the operating licence of its first nuclear power plant, which is due to expire in 2017 — almost four decades after it first went on line.
The official said Taipower will also ask regulators for permission to extend the licences for the second and third plants for another 20 years after they expire in 2021 and 2024.
President Ma Ying-jeou has said he wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the 2000 level by 2025, and then halve that by 2050.
To do so, the island may need to add three extra nuclear power generators in addition to a fourth nuclear power plant now under construction, the Economic Daily News said.
Electricity generated by the three nuclear power plants accounts for 20 percent of the island's power supply.
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