It would cost at least NT$1.12 trillion (US$40.5 billion) to make the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) operational, much more than it would cost to suspend construction now, the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance said yesterday.
The civic group said that while Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) has “threatened” the public by saying that electricity prices would rise sharply if nuclear power is abandoned — promoting the misconception that the nation must choose between tolerating potential risks to public safety or expensive electricity — other energy options exist.
In a 30-page report detailing the “real” cost of finishing the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and the viability of alternatives to nuclear power, the group said it used data gathered from Taipower reports and from other countries that use nuclear energy to calculate the cost of operating the plant and debunk the lies told by the government.
Photo courtesy of the Humanistic Education Foundation
Alliance chairperson Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑) said that while aborting construction of the plant may cost about NT$10 billion in penalties for breach of contract, the cost of operating the plant for 40 years would amount to NT$1.1256 trillion — excluding the cost of compensation and reconstruction if a nuclear disaster were to occur.
The group arrived at the figure by adding up the cost of implementing precautionary earthquake measures (NT$10.2 billion), additional construction (NT$46.2 billion), nuclear fuel (NT$380 billion), operation and maintenance (NT$380 billion), plant decommissioning (NT$186 billion), high-level nuclear waste disposal (NT$110 billion) and low-level nuclear waste disposal (NT$13.2 billion).
The reason why Taipower tells the public that electricity use would be restricted if nuclear energy is abandoned is because it has always overestimated the growth of electricity demand, alliance board member Chao Chia-wei (趙家緯) said.
He said that the state-run company had estimated that demand for electricity would increase 48 percent from 2010 to 2025.
“However, statistics on the past 10 years show that electricity demand has grown by just 30 percent,” he said. “In addition, given that economic growth was less than 2 percent during the same time period, the nation should reconsider its industrial structure to encourage higher energy efficiency.”
“The public has caved to the threats of skyrocketing electricity prices before, but we hope everyone can break away from this binary opposition and find a new model for economic development,” Lai said.
The group suggested that the government follow the policy of several European countries and aim for zero growth in electricity demand by adjusting industrial structures, improving energy efficiency and developing sustainable energy.
It added that using the NT$1.1256 trillion that would be spent operating the plant to develop “green” energy would generate about 5.3 times more electricity than would be provided by the plant and also create at least 40,000 jobs.
When asked if electricity prices would be much higher if the building of the plant is aborted, Chao said that calculations based on Taipower’s statistics show that prices would increase by just 0.4 percent, which would translate into about NT$4 or NT$5 a month per household.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat