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.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
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