Atomic Energy Council Deputy Minister Huang Tsing-tung (黃慶東) and other officials yesterday attracted heavy criticism over concerns about Taiwan’s ability to accurately detect radiation levels and deal with a potential nuclear disaster.
The council told a press conference yesterday afternoon that it had detected minute levels of radioactive iodine in dust particles. In previous days, it said it had not detected any radiation in or around Taiwan, even though a number of countries much farther from Japan had said that they had detected minor levels of radioactive particles.
As of noon yesterday, the council insisted that radioactive dust from Japan had not drifted to Taiwan, prompting widespread distrust of detectors set up by the council at several radiation fallout checkpoints in northern Taiwan.
Representatives from the council, the Department of Health, the Environmental Protection Administration, the Council of Agriculture and several other government agencies and national water reservoirs were questioned at the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene committee meeting.
Aside from lawmakers and government officials, academics with expertise in the fields of chemistry, public health, risk management and atomic energy were present to discuss the impact of nuclear crises on the environment and public health.
Several lawmakers said they feared Taiwan would not be able to handle a disaster such as the one that struck Japan following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that sparked a series of problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Angered by Huang’s comment that the council was “thinking about increasing [the number of checkpoints],” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如) said it should immediately increase the number of radiation detection check points.
DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) grilled council officials on the ability of detectors to measure radioactivity in the air and to explain how radioactive dust had drifted across the world and skipped Taiwan, as council data seemed to indicate.
Huang Tsing-tung said the council’s instruments were “extremely sensitive” and that the agency would “take this opportunity to fine-tune the instruments’ sensitivity.”
In other news, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) that the ministry would prioritize Taiwan’s participation in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Aside from the declared bids to have meaningful participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), “we should make a strong case for participation in the IAEA,” Chiang said.
Taiwan lost its IAEA membership in 1971 when the UN transferred the China seat from the Republic of China (ROC) to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which joined the IAEA in 1984.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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