UNCLASSIFIED United States Department of State ENVIRONMENTAL AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS gkie RELEASED IN PART B1 MEMORANDUM March 13 1986 T0 - Ambassador Richard Kennedy It 7 PROM I John D Negroponte SUBJECT Taiwan Research Reactor TRR Spent Fuel - x In June 1982 agreement was reached with the authorities on Taiwan on a project to move all TRR Spent fuel to the 0 8 We have since arranged for the establishment with U S participation of an acceptable research program at the TRR Safeguards are adequate and we have finally arranged for this diaposition of all TRR Spent fuel However in the interim Operation of the TRR continued unabated The reactor discharged 180 Spent fuel rods per year There are approximately 2000 rods currently in storage The June 1982 agreement covers costs only for the rods deemed to be of Canadian origin The agreement states that The related costs of each item identified in the'Spent fuel shipping program will be borne by each responsible party AIT will be reaponsible for the total rental costs of the shipping caskts of that part of the program related to spent fuel rods of Canadian origin Ialwan 18 paying for costs associated with activities on the Island 417 REVIEW AUTHORITY HOWARD LANG 65 CLASSIFICATION SECRET REASON 25X6 DECLASSIFY AFTER 31 DEC 2027 ID 09 OCT 2003 200702086 CL AS - UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ST DECL 0mg 3 Washington 2052 BUREAU OF OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL Ma Bl UNCLASSIFIED Former Taiwan Atomic Energy Council Secretary General Victor Cheng had agreed that allocation of costs for cask rental for the remainder of the project would be discussed after the first shipments had commenced The probable total cost of the project is around $100 million The costs of preparing and shipping the Canadian origin material is about $20 million -including costs to Taiwan Under present circumstances negotiation of the follow-on cost sharing arrangements could be difficult Next steps might include informally sounding out the Taiwan authorities on timing for developing an agreement on the next phase of the project This could be done in the course of discussions which Allen Sessoms expects to have on Taiwan this Spring about our coOperative program Given the many recent and projected changes in the nuclear bureaucracy in Taiwan laying down a marker such as this in the course of other very upbeat discussions might be useful UNCLASSIFIED This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu