Two referendums on the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) might be held concurrently with next year’s presidential election.
Former Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairman Kao Cheng-yan (高成炎) has proposed one on repurposing the plant for renewable energy generation, museum exhibits and tours, and research. Nuclear advocate Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), who initiated the “Go nuclear to go green” referendum during the nine-in-one elections in November last year, has proposed another referendum on restarting construction at the plant.
The plant had gone through numerous local referendums long before the Referendum Act (公民投票法) was enacted. One was held in Gongliao in May 1994, with 96 percent of votes opposing, while another was held in then-Taipei County the following November, with 88.6 percent opposed. Taipei also held a referendum on the plant in March 1996, with 54 percent against, while another was held in Yilan County in December 1998, with 60.01 percent against. None put an end to the controversy.
The construction was originally proposed in 1980, but the budget was frozen in 1986. The legislature unfroze the budget in 1992, only to pass a termination plan in May 1998. The following October, the Executive Yuan resurrected the plan and construction officially started in March 1999. In October 2000, the Cabinet decided to suspend construction, but the legislature resolved to relaunch the work in January 2001. In April 2014, the Cabinet announced that the plant was being mothballed.
The dispute has gone on for nearly 40 years and construction has lasted more than 20 years. This period has witnessed Chernobyl and Fukushima Dai-ichi, and seen two changes of government in Taiwan. The construction has gone over budget and wasted government resources.
To mothball the plant, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) budgeted NT$2.5 billion (US$81 million at the current exchange rate) for halting construction and another NT$1.279 billion for three years of maintenance. Despite the legislature’s determination not to allocate additional funds to the project, Taipower budgeted another NT$817 million for “asset maintenance and management” after the three-year period expired.
The plant is a money pit. Resuming construction is estimated to take 10 more years and almost NT$80 billion. The same amount of time and money would be better spent promoting energy savings and developing renewable sources of energy. Even repurposing the plant into a museum or an amusement park would be more meaningful than letting it remain mired in dispute.
The plant has not generated a single kilowatt-hour in four decades, effectively dispelling the myth that a power shortage would occur without it. An analysis published in 2013 by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research showed that the levelized cost of electricity generated by the plant would be about NT$2.44 per kilowatt-hour, without counting costs incurred from policies and incidents.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute estimates the levelized cost of solar power as NT$1 to NT$2 per kilowatt-hour, assuming that power stations have a life span of 25 years. Nuclear power is not necessarily cheaper. A study by a French state agency showed that Taiwan could save US$44.5 billion by transitioning to renewable energy to replace aging atomic facilities.
In another 10 years, the dispute will have gone on for half a century. Nuclear waste is a complex issue, exposing future generations to potential disaster.
We hope that people will sign the proposal for the referendum on repurposing the plant.
Tsai Ya-ying is a lawyer affiliated with the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
RSS