File photo

Taipei, June 12 (CNA) The No. 2 reactor at the second nuclear power plant in New Taipei's Wanli District is scheduled to resume operations at 11:00 p.m. Tuesday after being taken offline earlier in the evening, state-run utility Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) said on the same day.

Taipower spokesman Hsu Tsao-hua (徐造華) said one of the reactor's connectors was found to be at an excessively high temperature and the reactor was taken offline at around 8:00 p.m. for maintenance.

The decision was taken to check the connectors as a precaution and not because of any problems with the reactor itself, Hsu said.

Prior to being taken offline, the reactor was operating at 60 percent capacity, generating 580,000 kilowatts of electricity earlier in the day, falling to 30 percent capacity in the afternoon and 18 percent at 6 p.m.

The reactor, which went offline in May 2016 following a glitch in its electrical system during major maintenance work, resumed operation on March 27, but automatically shut down the next day after it developed another glitch.

Taipower then submitted an application on April 9 to the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) to restart the reactor. After convening several review meetings and conducting an on-site inspection, the AEC gave approval on June 5 for the reactor to be restarted.

At full capacity the reactor generates 985,000 kilowatts of electricity.

(By Kuo Hsing-yi and William Yen)
Enditem/AW