The once-suspended construction of a wharf built for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant resumed in early May, making it possible for Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) to import a nuclear reactor from Japan next month, the company said yesterday.
In order not to delay the scheduled completion of the nuclear power plant in July 2006, Taipower would transfer one of two nuclear reactors currently being built in Japan to Kungliao at the end of next month, officials said.
"It means that we have to have the wharf working by then," said Huang Huei-yu (黃惠予), the head of Taipower's public affairs department.
The shipment of the reactor was originally scheduled for late this month, Huang said.
"We don't think the delay will have any effect on the plant's scheduled date of completion," Huang said.
Huang said that Public Construction Commission Vice Chairman Kuo Ching-chiang (
The construction of the wharf had been halted in mid-January, when Premier Yu Shyi-kun decided to launch an investigation into the relation between coastal erosion and construction of the wharf.
Last month, the investigation report suggested that the loss of sand at the nearby Fulung Beach could be attributed to stresses on the environment caused by construction of the wharf.
However, ministers without portfolio Lin Sheng-feng (
On Thursday, Liu Chao-hsiung (劉照雄), Taipower's site manager for the Lungmen Construction Office (龍門施工處) in Kungliao, convened a meeting with local residents.
According to Liu, on May 1 the Cabinet's Ministry of Economic Affairs ordered Taipower to resume construction of the wharf, further deepening the dock.
Local residents and anti-nuclear environmentalists, however, vigorously expressed their opposition to the decision, and angrily left the meeting.
"It looks like the Cabinet failed to coordinate its subordinate agencies on the issue," Wu Wen-tung (吳文通), spokesman for the Kungliao-based Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association, said yesterday.
Both Wu and environmentalists called for a new, comprehensive evaluation to be conducted by the Environmental Protection Administration.
When the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) was enacted in 1994, environmentalists began highlighting what they said were questionable aspects of the assessment conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission.
Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑), secretary-general of the Green Citizen Action Alliance, said yesterday that resumption of construction revealed that the Cabinet's investigation into coastal erosion had no substantial influence.
Lai said that the Cabinet's performance in the matter demonstrates that promoting sustainable development had never been the government's priority.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS