TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 21 (UPI) -- Taiwan has installed a core reactor at its fourth nuclear power plant despite safety concerns over the plant's design, the Taiwan News reported Monday.
The reactor was installed at the Taiwan Power Co. plant in the northern coastal town of Kungliao after two days' delay, the newspaper said.
State-run Taipower said the plant would produce 2,770 megawatts of electricity once a second reactor is in place in July 2007. The first reactor is scheduled to begin operation in July 2006.
However, an estimated $1.3 billion needed to complete the project has not yet been approved by Parliament.
Wu Wen-tung, head of a Kungliao group that opposes the nuclear power plant, said it "could become Taiwan's largest nightmare in the future." Wu said his group had repeatedly called attention to engineering flaws at the power plant.
Controversy over the project has raged for years. In October 2000 the government scrapped the partly built $5.6 billion plant on safety grounds, citing difficulties in the disposal of contaminated waste. The project was reinstated in February 2001.
Since Taiwan's first nuclear plant became operational in 1987, at least 180,000 drums of low-radiation waste have been generated.
