Dec 27 - BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

There was no damage reported at the third nuclear power plant in southern Taiwan after several strong earthquakes Tuesday evening, nuclear power plant officials said Wednesday [27 December].

The officials noted that the nuclear power plant's number one reactor was at full capacity, while the number two reactor, although in a safe situation, was stopped manually by power plant personnel as a precaution.

According to the officials, the earthquake resistance of the third nuclear power plant is 0.4 G (acceleration of gravity), which gives protection against earthquakes registering eight to nine on the Richter scale.

Tuesday's earthquake was measured as 0.17 G by the power plant's earthquake-monitoring system, which is smaller than 0.2 G, a figure set by the power plant in which the reactors will be shut down immediately after a temblor or other accident.

Taiwan's third nuclear power plant is located in Hengchun in southern Pingtung County, which was hit by two earthquakes measuring 6.7 and 6.4 on the Richter scale Tuesday.

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