Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers and several academics yesterday told a press conference that the nuclear radiation level in Lanyu (蘭嶼), also known as Orchid Island, was a serious concern and demanded a complete investigation into potential radiation threats on the island.
Katsumi Nakao of J.F. Oberlin University and Yoh Kato of Tokyo Metropolitan University, who were invited by the Atomic Energy Council to conduct radioactivity tests on the island on Nov. 10 and Nov. 11, decried the detection results announced by the council, saying the real levels were significantly higher than those reported by the council.
The council yesterday reaffirmed the safety of the island, where a nuclear waste storage facility is located, after joint readings by Nakao, Kato and five Taiwanese professors.
Photo: CNA
It said the tests done by different units all showed that readings of radiation levels were within the variation of environmental background radiation, so tourists should not be worried about visiting the island.
The council said it had invited the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Taitung County government, local representatives and environmentalists to the island to check radiation levels between Sept. 11 and Sept. 17, and also invited specialists from Taiwan and Japan along with specialists from the council’s Radiation Monitoring Center to test the environment radiation levels on Nov. 10 and Nov. 11.
It said that while Japanese specialists discovered abnormal levels of radiation around a cement wall in Langtao Village’s (朗島) former health center, the tests done by specialists from three Taiwanese units showed that radiation levels were within safety limits.
After analyzing the radiation testing devices used by the Japanese specialists on Friday, the council said it discovered that the devices might have been affected by electromagnetic waves from mobile phone base stations, so the readings did not effectively measure non-ionizing radiation leaked from nuclear waste on the island.
Both Kato and Nakao said the radiation level at Langtao Village detected by their equipment was “unusually high,” while the council said no abnormal data had been detected.
The Japanese professors later donated their detection equipment to Lanyu residents.
Taipei Medical University professor Chang Wu-shou (張武修), who was on the research team, said the council’s detection equipment was of questionable reliability.
DPP legislators Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪), Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) and Ho Shin-chun (何欣純) accused the council of lying to Lanyu residents.
In addition, Lin said that the council had lost its credibility.
“That was why they [Lanyu residents] would rather trust the Japanese professors than the government agencies,” Lin said.
Thirty years after the storage facility was built without prior consultation and communication with Lanyu residents, the government has yet to conduct a complete investigation of nuclear radiation on the island, Lin said.
With the council’s credibility in question, Liu Chao-hao said an independent institution or research team should be brought in to conduct a thorough inspection of radiation levels on the island.
The council was accused of malpractice concerning nuclear waste repackaging in Lanyu last month.
‘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
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
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
RSS