Taiwan will assess whether it should shut down any of its three active nuclear power plants after the completion of related reviews, Atomic Energy Council (AEC) Minister Tsai Chuen-horng (蔡春鴻) said.
Tsai said the council has asked Taiwan Power Co, which operates the nuclear power plants, to conduct a survey of the Sanchiao (山腳) and Hengchun (恆春) fault lines.
The Sanchiao fault line is located between the first and second nuclear power plants in New Taipei City (新北市), while the Hengchun fault line is not far from the third nuclear power plant in the south.
The surveys are expected to take two years, Tsai said.
The National Science Council is also conducting a nationwide earthquake source survey, which is to be completed at the end of the year.
“We have to wait for the completion of all these surveys to be able to work out a strategy on dealing with multiple disasters such as the combination of an earthquake and tsunami,” Tsai said.
He was responding to reports that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan had ordered the shutdown of the aging Hamaoka nuclear power plant southwest of Tokyo because of its location near a tectonic fault line.
Seismologists have warned that a major quake is long overdue in the Tokai region southwest of Tokyo where the Hamaoka plant is located, about 200km from Tokyo in Shizuoka Prefecture.
Japanese authorities, including the country’s science ministry, have concluded that the possibility of a magnitude 8 earthquake hitting the area within the next 30 years is 87 percent, Kan said.
Meanwhile, officials from Taiwan and China yesterday discussed a cross-strait cooperation and communication mechanism to address nuclear energy safety issues.
Liu Hua (劉華), director of China’s Nuclear Safety and Radioactive Environment Management Department, said he fully supports the signing of a cross-strait nuclear energy safety agreement and the establishment of an official hotline on the issue.
Speaking at a nuclear safety seminar, Liu said Taiwan’s and China’s state-owned power companies have exchanged nuclear power technology over the past several years, but realized the importance of closer cooperation on the issue in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis.
“Cross-strait dialogue on nuclear safety will be raised to an official level,” he said at the seminar.
The seminar was one of eight conferences being held during a cross-strait economic and cultural forum organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that opened on Saturday in Chengdu, China.
Also speaking at the seminar, Chen Pu-tsan (陳布燦), a Taipower department director in charge of nuclear energy safety, said both Taiwan and China are members of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and have maintained regular exchanges under the WANO framework on nuclear technology and equipment maintenance.
Several Taipower officials met their counterparts recently and reached a consensus on establishing an information exchange platform on nuclear energy safety in the near future, he said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS