More than half the public want construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) to be halted due to safety concerns, according to two surveys released yesterday ahead of a mass protest at the weekend.
Fifty-four percent of the 1,071 people interviewed in a survey commissioned by weekly magazine Business Today were in favor of scrapping the atomic power plant, while 23 percent opposed it.
A total of 63.5 percent believed that nuclear power plants are unsafe against 2.5 percent who considered them safe, while only 11 percent said they have faith in the government’s ability to manage the plants, the poll said.
Another survey conducted by the Chinese-language China Times showed similar results, with 62.4 percent of 761 people interviewed in favor of stopping construction of the plant, against 21.2 percent who want the work to continue.
Debate over the nation’s latest nuclear power facility — under construction since 1999 and still not completed — heated up as the legislature prepared to review an additional budget of about NT$40 billion (US$1.4 billion).
Organizers expect about 50,000 people to take to the streets across the nation tomorrow to urge the government to heed the lessons of the Japanese atomic crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant that was triggered by a powerful earthquake and tsunami two years ago.
Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A magnitude 5.6 earthquake shook buildings in Taipei yesterday.
Last month, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said for the first time that the government would support holding a referendum on the nuclear plant amid mounting public concern.
Then on Monday, officials said that international experts would run safety checks on the existing trio of nuclear plants as part of efforts to reassure the public following the Japanese disaster.
Currently, there are three nuclear power plants in operation — the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門), New Taipei City, the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli (萬里), New Taipei City, and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Ma-anshan (馬鞍山), Pingtung County.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
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