Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that if she was elected president in January, her administration would work to enshrine into law a plan seeking to decommission Taiwan’s nuclear industry.
The 2025 nuclear-free homeland proposal — the first major policy initiative unveiled by Tsai since she announced her presidential bid — would halt operations at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and would not renew licenses for the other three nuclear plants pending the development of other energy sources.
Drawing a direct line to the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, Tsai yesterday said nuclear power “has led to many concerns,” especially given the proximity of two of the older nuclear plants — Jinshan and Guosheng nuclear power plants — to Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市).
“The Japanese government has already asked the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, which is located 200km from the capital, to cease operations. Meanwhile our -government doesn’t seem concerned about the proximity of Taipei to nuclear power plants,” she said.
Tsai said she would ask the DPP’s legislative caucus to make plans to enshrine the nuclear-free homeland proposal into law if the party regained power next year.
“We hope this would force the government to act and carry it out after it becomes law,” Tsai told a crowd in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), a seaside town where the fourth nuclear plant is under construction.
Critics of the project, which includes the DPP under Tsai, say the power plant is unnecessary and that nuclear regulators have failed to crack down on numerous design flaws and construction errors.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration says the plant will help meet Taiwan’s greenhouse emissions reduction targets.
Tsai has said the reductions could be offset by large investments in renewable energy sources, including wind and solar.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS