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DE RUEHC #0336 3562321
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 222312Z DEC 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AIT TAIPEI 0000

UNCLAS STATE 130336 
 
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PLEASE PASS TO AIT/K 
 
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SUBJECT: REPORT OF THE 26TH MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 
INSTITUTE IN TAIWAN (AIT) - TAIPEI ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL 
REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE (TECRO) JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON 
CIVIL NUCLEAR COOPERATION (JSCCNC) 
 
PLEASE PASS TO AIT/K 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (SBU) The 26th meeting of the AIT-TECRO JSCCNC was held in 
Kaohsiung, Taiwan on October 26-27, 2009.  The two sides 
discussed collaboration in the areas of nuclear reactor 
safety and regulation, radioactive waste management, 
emergency management, nuclear fuel research, safeguards, 
nuclear medicine, and other peaceful uses of nuclear 
technologies.  The discussions were positive and productive. 
Participants discussed Taiwan,s interest in advanced nuclear 
reactor research, with AIT expressing the view that Very High 
Temperature Reactors are a more fruitful area for bilateral 
exchanges than other Generation IV reactors, such as Molten 
Salt Reactors.  As a result of these discussions, TECRO 
informed AIT of its desire to pursue only materials-related 
technology development in connection with advanced reactors. 
The JSCCNC meeting was followed by a visit to Taiwan,s 
nearly completed fourth nuclear power plant (Lungmen) to view 
the status of construction.  A full summary record of the 
meeting, including copies of slides from presentations, is 
available from DOS/ISN/NESS. 
 
END SUMMARY 
 
------------------ 
MEETING HIGHLIGHTS 
------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) On October 26 and 27, 2009, the AIT-TECRO JSCCNC met 
for the 26th time in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.  The Head of 
Delegation on the TECRO side was Dr. Der-Jhy Shieh, Deputy 
Minister of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Principal 
Coordinator for the Taipei Economic and Cultural 
Representative Office (TECRO).  The Head of Delegation on the 
AIT side was Dr. Alex R. Burkart, Deputy Director of the 
Office of Nuclear Energy, Safety and Security (NESS), U.S. 
Department of State (DOS).  The Taiwan delegation included 
representatives from TECRO, AEC, the Coordination Council for 
North American Affairs (CCNAA), the Fuel Cycle and Materials 
Administration (FCMA), the Institute of Nuclear Energy 
Research (INER), Taiwan Radiation Monitoring Center (TRMC), 
Taiwan Power Company (TPC), and the National Tsing-Hwa 
University (NTHU).  The AIT delegation included 
representatives from the Department of State, the American 
Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the Department of Energy (DOE), 
DOE the Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC), DOE Sandia National Laboratory 
(SNL), and DOE Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). 
 
¶3. (U) A particular emphasis in the 2009 meeting was the 
prospect of a renaissance of the nuclear industry stemming 
from the shared international concern about climate change, 
global warming, and the potential of nuclear power as an 
alternative source of clean energy.  This was the message 
expressed by Dr Shieh, who also emphasized the importance of 
addressing concerns about nuclear safety, safeguards and 
waste management as a means to overcome public disapproval of 
the growth of the nuclear power industry. 
 
¶4. (U) The message conveyed by both Mr. Christian Castro, 
Branch Chief of the AIT Kaohsiung Office, and Dr. Burkart was 
one of enhanced collaboration in which the United States is 
working bilaterally and multilaterally to ensure that 
emerging nuclear power countries recognize the importance of 
pursuing nuclear power the right way.  Dr. Burkart and Dr. 
Chuen-Horng Tsai, Minister Chairman of the AEC, outlined some 
of the changes and challenges that the new administrations in 
the United States and Taiwan face regarding nuclear energy 
policies and international cooperation on safe, secure and 
more proliferation-resistant nuclear power development. 
 
¶5. (U) According to Dr. Tsai, the transition in Taiwan from 
the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to the Kuomingtang 
(KMT) was quite fortunate for the nuclear industry because 
the new administration has proven to be supportive of nuclear 
energy developments.  In early June of 2008, Taiwan announced 
the &Sustainable Energy Policy Directive8, which outlines 
the strategic goals for energy conservation, the increase of 
the percentage of low carbon energy sources and the 
consideration of nuclear power as a carbon-free energy 
option.  As Dr. Tsai noted, this directive was considered the 
first sign of a rollback of the DPP,s anti-nuclear policies. 
 In mid-April 2009, Taiwan held the &Third National Energy 
Conference8 to provide guidelines on Taiwan,s future energy 
strategies.  Dr. Tsai recalled Premier Liu,s concluding 
remarks, where Liu referred to nuclear power as an existing 
reality and a transition source of energy needed to achieve a 
low carbon society, urging the administration to guarantee 
nuclear power safety, advance nuclear waste treatment 
technologies and strengthen transparency and proper oversight 
maintenance. 
 
¶6. (U) Dr. Tsai pointed out that following the Conference, 
Taiwan issued an action program, approved by the Executive 
Yuan in July 2009, consisting of sixteen integrated action 
plans, showing a commitment to safe, secure nuclear power 
development.  These action plans include assessing the 
reasonable use of nuclear power, for which the AEC is 
responsible, promoting the development of human resources in 
energy technology, and fostering an energy program under the 
National Science and Technology Program of the National 
Science Council, supported by the AEC and under which all 
nuclear related projects will fall.  Examples of such 
projects include research on the safety analysis capability 
for Generation III and III  light water reactors, and basic 
studies on Molten Salt Reactors (MSR), including material 
characteristics and their use as actinide burners. 
 
¶7. (U) In his plenary briefing, Dr. Wei-Chi Wang, Deputy 
Director of the AEC,s Planning Department, presented graphs 
illustrating Taiwan,s reliance on coal burning plants.  The 
figures showed that the island,s power system in 2008 had an 
installed capacity of about 42% coal, while nuclear power 
accounted for about 11% of installed capacity.  Of the 
electricity generated during 2008, about 55% was from coal 
and 17% from nuclear power.  The three nuclear power plants 
(NPP) (six reactors) generated a total of 40.83 
TeraWatt-hours of electricity during 2008, a record high and 
an increase of 0.7% over the previous year.  Taiwan is 
presently discussing the addition of new nuclear units, 
possibly four more units to be constructed at the Lungmen 
site starting in 2013, with two more units to be added later. 
 The hope is to have six additional units completed within 
eight years. 
 
¶8. (U) According to Dr. Wang, there have been safety 
improvements over the years in Taiwan,s three operating NPP, 
Chinshan, Kuosheng, and Maanshan.  However, the number of 
safety violations at the Fourth NPP, still under 
construction, has increased during the past three years, with 
a total of seven violations as of October 2009.  The problems 
experienced by the Fourth NPP (Lungmen) include poor 
engineering management, late involvement of the utility in 
the development process, inadequate design, construction 
flaws, management problems arising from too high a level of 
trust in the contractors, delays, soaring vendor prices, 
unexpected changes in design, equipment delivery delays by 
the vendors, and regulatory disputes.  Major ongoing 
regulatory activities within the AEC,s nuclear regulation 
department include the power uprate of operating NPPs, 
reactor oversight and significance determination processes, 
processing of transient analysis methodology licensing 
applications, a ten year integrated safety assessment of the 
Chinshan NPP, and implementation of maintenance rules and 
inspection of Lungmen Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) 
construction. 
 
¶9. (U) Mr. Wang mentioned that 24,000 radiation protection 
permits for equipment and materials and 8,800 personnel 
certificates were issued as of February 2009.  In addition, 
an online reporting system was established to strengthen 
radiation control measures.  As for radioactive waste 
management concerns, TPC has significantly reduced the total 
output of solidified low level waste (LLW) from its three 
NPPs from about 12,000 drums in 1983 to 253 drums in 2008 
thanks to the successful implementation of the high 
efficiency solidification technologies developed by INER, 
including the Pressurized Water Reactor High Efficiency 
Solidification Technology (PWRHEST) implemented at the 
Maanshan NPP, and the Boiling Water Reactor High Efficiency 
Solidification Technology (BWRHEST) used at the Kuosheng NPP. 
 Mr. Wang also indicated that Taiwan,s Ministry of Economic 
Affairs (MOEA) is expected to make a formal announcement of 
the proposed sites for final disposal of LLW by the end 2009. 
 A final candidate site will be determined by an island-wide 
referendum held.  Two potential candidates are Nanten 
Village, in the very South of Taiwan, and Dongjiyu Islet. 
However, following MOEA,s preliminary suggestion of 
Dongjiyu, Penghu County indicated the Islet is a nature 
conservation reserve, an announcement that might change 
MOEA,s decision. 
 
¶10. (U) According to Mr. Wang, Taiwan,s emergency response 
programs have also experienced improvements this year as a 
result of the lessons learned from typhoon Morakot, which 
prompted a disaster review meeting to develop a series of 
action plans to prepare for nuclear emergencies.  Taiwan has 
also been actively involved in education and public outreach 
programs, especially for youth.  The programs include science 
and environmental protection fairs, nuclear training camps 
for school teachers, and educational videos on official 
websites.  In the beginning of October, the AEC established 
freedom of information action teams tasked with two initial 
duties, namely to study the feasibility of, and set 
guidelines for, public participation in AEC,s activities, 
and to draft criteria and procedures for public inspections, 
exemptions, requests for withholding, and other requests. 
These criteria and procedures will be developed utilizing 
USNRC 1-CRF2.390 as a reference, and will be included in 
Taiwan,s &Freedom of Government Information Law8. 
 
¶11. (U) The updates from the AIT side included the status of 
fire protection regulations and related activities in the 
United States, implementation of maintenance practices and 
modifications to minimize the clogging of sump strainers in 
pressurized water reactors, development of interim staff 
guidance on performance of digital instrumentation and 
control reviews, status of power uprates applications, the 
NRC license renewal program activities, the status of the 
design certifications being evaluated by the NRC, an overview 
of the advanced reactor program within the Office of New 
Reactors, and updates of the new uranium enrichment 
facilities anticipated to be built in the United States.  NRC 
also provided Taiwan with information on its Multinational 
Design Evaluation Program, established to develop 
international cooperation on design reviews and the pursuit 
of convergence of codes and standards.  Currently 10 national 
authorities take part in the new reactor reviews, while 
others participate as observers. 
 
¶12. (U) DOE briefed Taiwan on the activities of DOE,s Office 
of Nuclear Energy (NE) to promote nuclear power as a resource 
to meet the United States, energy, environmental, and 
national security needs.  DOE/NE provided information on 
several of its research and development programs aimed at 
resolving technical, financial, safety, security, and 
regulatory barriers faced by nuclear power programs.  Among 
the programs highlighted were &Nuclear Power 20108 - 
designed to foster government-industry partnerships to speed 
up identification of new sites for the construction of 
nuclear power plants, and the &Next Generation Nuclear 
Plant8, a government-industry partnership to accelerate 
commercialization of Generation IV technologies in the United 
States.  DOE/NE also emphasized international collaborations 
that the office has established with several countries around 
the globe and with international organizations to develop and 
implement the new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, 
focused on nuclear fuel assurances and infrastructure 
development.  Other opportunities for international research 
cooperation mentioned by DOE/NE were generation III reactor 
deployment and applications, fuel services, and radioactive 
waste management. 
 
¶13. (U) DOE also introduced Taiwan to DOE,s Global Threat 
Reduction Initiative (GTRI), which cooperates with countries 
to reduce and protect vulnerable nuclear and radiological 
materials at civilian sites worldwide.  GTRI provided a 
presentation on its efforts working with countries worldwide 
on ensuring the security of high-activity radioactive 
sources.  Taiwan was invited to participate with GTRI in a 
cooperative project on radioactive source security. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Taiwan,s Ministry of Economic Affairs, the AEC, 
the National Tsing Hua University, and AIT delegates from DOE 
and DOS also held discussions on the margins of the meeting 
regarding the replacement of Taiwan,s nuclear cooperation 
agreement with the United States (upon expiration of the 
existing agreement), MOEA,s point of view on spent fuel 
management, and Taiwan,s interest in Molten Salt Reactors 
(MSR).  With regard to the replacement of the current 
bilateral cooperation agreement, Dr. Burkart stated the need 
to include provisions specified in the 1978 amendment to the 
Atomic Energy Act (pursuant to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Act of 1978).   These provisions were not present when the 
agreement was initially negotiated in 1972 and amended in 
¶1974.  In addition, he recommended to include language to 
reflect the application of full-scope safeguards in Taiwan, 
and Taiwan,s lack of intent to pursue enrichment and 
reprocessing technology.  Including that additional language 
would be a means to record present reality and to give Taiwan 
credit for its nonproliferation efforts. 
 
¶15. (SBU) Chin-Shan Lee, Deputy Director, Department of 
Nuclear Backend Management of Taiwan Power Company informed 
the AIT delegation that in order to deal with spent fuel 
management, Taiwan is interested in shipping its spent fuel 
overseas for reprocessing (France is an option).  However, 
problems with the return of the waste still need to be 
resolved.  A significant practical barrier in the development 
of an agreement between Areva and TPC for transfer of spent 
fuel from Taiwan to France is the fact that France requires 
return of the high level waste to the originator.  However, 
France is worried about the possibility of Taiwan refusing to 
take the waste back at the time of its return.  Areva had 
proposed that France enter into an agreement with the United 
States, where the U.S. would agree to receive the waste in 
case Taiwan refuses to do so.  Dr. Burkart emphasized that 
the United States wants a clear understanding of what will 
happen with the fuel and its full transfer process, and it 
may be possible for this to be incorporated in a legally 
binding agreement between AIT and TECRO.  However, the United 
States will not conclude a second agreement with France to 
receive the waste in the event of a Taiwan,s refusal. 
 
¶16. (SBU) An important issue discussed was Taiwan,s future 
reactor studies, and NTHU,s interest in performing 
preliminary studies on MSRs.  The reason for the 
attractiveness of the MSR to Taiwan is based on its potential 
role as an actinide burner, which represents a possible 
solution to the spent fuel problem.  NTHU sees research on 
the topic as an innovative contribution Taiwan could make to 
the international community.  So far, NTHU,s work on MSRs 
has been limited mostly to literature review in the area of 
materials structure and studies of corrosion as it relates to 
high temperature alloys, with some purely theoretical studies 
of reactor physics. 
 
¶17. (SBU) Dr. Burkart stated that MSRs would not be a 
fruitful area of cooperation with the United States since the 
United States is not doing, or planning to do, any work on 
that area.  Rather, for bilateral exchanges the United States 
is interested in gas-cooled reactors, especially Very High 
Temperature Reactors.  Scientists from NTHU voiced their 
desire for the research not to be only domestic but 
international, which would give it transparency.  However, 
Dr. Burkart pointed out the absence of international programs 
on MSRs for Taiwan to plug into.  As a result of the dialogs, 
Taiwan stated that its new proposal for international 
cooperation would not focus on the reactor but rather on high 
temperature material development, material behavior and basic 
phenomenological properties, carbon-carbon composites, molten 
salts, and the application of salts in secondary loops. 
 
¶18. (SBU) The JSCCNC meeting was followed by a visit to 
Taiwan,s nearly completed fourth nuclear power plant, the 
Lungmen facility, in Gongliao, Taipei, where the delegation 
could view the status of its construction.  TPC briefed AIT 
on the status of the Lungmen project, including construction 
and testing of Unit I, the damage on Unit II resulting from 
the flooding caused by Typhoon Sinlaku in 2008 and lessons 
learned from the experience, and the digital instrumentation 
and control (I&C) system and simulator used on Lungmen.  TPC 
indicated that the cause of the flooding of the buildings in 
Unit II was related to the flow of the inundating waters and 
the construction configuration, not to plant design or the 
expected final configuration.  TPC is in the process of 
repairing and/or replacing and retesting the damaged 
equipment. 
 
¶19. (SBU) The delegation toured the turbine, reactor, and 
control buildings of Unit I, and saw a demonstration of the 
simulator in action.  Lungmen is designed to have two 
advanced boiling water reactors manufactured by General 
Electric Co.  The steam turbine generator was manufactured by 
Mitsubishi and the radwaste and related system equipment by 
Hitachi.  The Lungmen project was supposed to be 90.47% 
complete as of August 2009, although the figure was judged by 
TPC to be unrealistic.  Unit I has experienced several 
suspensions, design and construction problems, which Dr. 
James Lin, Deputy Director of TPC,s Nuclear Engineering 
Department, told AIT caused the commercial operation date to 
be extended and the budget to be increased several times, 
most recently to 2011 with a budget of $8.6 billion. 
 
¶20. (SBU) In the reactor building, the delegation observed 
the exposed reactor vessel, with the vessel head and 
shielding stacked in sections on the refueling deck.  The 
delegation observed the empty spent fuel pool adjacent to the 
reactor, and the spent fuel and proposed fuel storage area 
located behind the spent fuel pool.  NRC experts noted that 
walks though the top level of the turbine building and the 
refueling floor level of the reactor building revealed some 
poor housekeeping practices and some industrial safety 
concerns, including the lack of safety glasses on staff.  It 
was unclear whether there was any requirement for wearing 
safety glasses.  In the simulator, the delegation observed 
several demonstrations at the fully functioning simulator, 
including NRC,s request for simulation of a large break loss 
of coolant accident (LOCA) with common mode failure of all 
four safety divisions, digital instruments and controls. 
 
 
------------------------- 
WORKING GROUPS HIGHLIGHTS 
------------------------- 
 
¶21. (U) The AIT-TECRO JSCCNC meetings included meetings by 
three working groups.  Working Group I addressed &Matters 
Pertaining to Reactor Regulation and Regulatory Research8 
and was chaired by William Ruland, Director of the Division 
of Safety Systems in NRC,s Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation, and Yi-Bin Chen, Director of the AEC,s 
Department of Nuclear Regulation.  AIT briefed TECRO on the 
U.S. national source tracking system, gas accumulation 
management, BWR sump strainer blockage issues, and the 
regulatory decision-making process for license renewal. 
TECRO gave a presentation on radiation sources management in 
Taiwan.  During their discussions, AEC and NRC reiterated 
their commitment to support and pursue the renewal of AEC,s 
Cooperative Severe Accident Research Program (CSARP), which 
is expected to be completed and signed by AIT and TECRO in 
early 2010.  In addition, NRC agreed to host an AEC assignee 
for eight months in the Office of New Reactors, to work on 
seismic design and siting criteria.  AEC will provide NRC 
with the most updated Lungmen pre-op testing schedule, while 
both agencies work to coordinate a visit from NRC,s Office 
of New Reactor staff to the Lungmen NPP, probably in late 
spring or early summer of 2010, with the purpose of observing 
the testing of the plant,s simulator. 
 
¶22. (U) NRC agreed to provide to the AEC a copy of its 
&National Report8 as is required by parties to the 
Convention of Nuclear Safety.  The AEC promised to provide 
its equivalent report to NRC in October 2010 for comments. 
NRC invited two trainees from AEC to participate in a 
five-week training program on BWR simulator and technology 
review, and reactor safety, followed by a week of inspection 
activity and technical exchange with Region II and tour of 
the Watts Bar facility.  In the area of digital 
instrumentation and control, the agencies will be planning a 
workshop for April 2010.  Another area of cooperation between 
AEC and NRC is fire protection, where a workshop is currently 
scheduled for March 2010.  Finally, NRC agreed to provide AEC 
with information on void criteria associated with gas 
accumulation in Emergency Core Cooling Systems, and 
information and lessons learned regarding international 
collaboration on sump issues.  There will be a follow-up 
between the two agencies regarding the National Source 
Tracking System (NSTS) exchange.  They anticipate holding 
their next bilateral exchange in May 2010. 
 
¶23. (U) Working Group II handled &Matters Pertaining to 
Waste Management and Environmental Restoration8.  The Chairs 
of this group were Hong-Nian Jow, from SNL,s Global Security 
Engagement & International Safeguards program, and 
Ching-Tsuen Huang, Director General of the FCMA. 
Presentations on the design of an information management 
system for a spent fuel interim dry storage facility, the 
status of radiation waste management in the U.S., the Yucca 
Mountain project, and the status of commercial low level 
waste disposal in the U.S., were provided in this working 
group.  The FCMA agreed to prepare, issue, and send in 
mid-2010 the second version of a draft report equivalent to a 
&National Report8 under the Joint convention on the Safety 
of Spent Fuel and the Safety of Radioactive Waste to the U.S. 
DOE for peer review.  FMCA will also send to NRC, during the 
first half of 2010, the proposal for a workshop on the 
&Transport and disposal practices of irregular waste forms8. 
 
¶24. (U) Working Group III dealt with the topic of &Advanced 
Nuclear Technology8.  This group was chaired by Elizabeth 
Lisann, Team Leader of DOE,s Office of Nuclear Energy, and 
Taun-Ran Yeh, Director General of INER.  The topics discussed 
included health physics, technical safety support, 
radioisotope production, and applications and safeguarding of 
nuclear materials.  In addition, NNSA presented Taiwan with 
the possibility of jointly developing two training courses: 
the first, a Radiation Emergency Assistance Training course 
to familiarize medical responders and hospital personnel with 
the treatment of radiation injuries; and the second, the 
International Radiological Assistance Program Training for 
Emergency Response on search and identification techniques in 
response to radiological incidents.  The training courses 
would be presented simultaneously during the second or third 
quarter of 2010.  TECRO also received an update on the status 
of nondestructive waste assay (NDA) measurements for the 
Spent Fuel Stabilization Project at INER,s Taiwan Research 
Reactor (TRR).  TECRO thanked AIT for resolving difficulties 
in acquiring US radiation shielding software.  Taiwan 
expressed interest in developing cooperative activities in 
the area of health physics.  AIT agreed to provide TECRO with 
contact information for the appropriate coordinator for 
radioisotope productions and applications. 
 
----------------- 
POINTS OF CONTACT 
----------------- 
 
¶25. (U) Department thanks AIT/T and AIT/K for their 
assistance in organizing the JSCCNC meeting.  Main point of 
contact in AIT/T is John W. Hicks (HicksJW2@state.gov, 
 886-2-2162-2000 x2013).  Points of contact in the Department 
are Dr. Alex R. Burkart (BurkartAR@state.gov, 202-647-2950) 
and Dr. Zaira Nazario (NazarioZD@state.gov, 202-647-8229). 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
CLINTON