Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday submitted a proposal that aims to prevent fuel rods from being installed at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to the New Taipei City (新北市) government.
Along with the proposal, Lu submitted 51,353 letters and a list of reasons why the fuel rods should not be installed to the city’s election committee.
Lu was received by New Taipei City Government Secretary-General Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢), but was unhappy that New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) was not there. Lu said Chu’s absence showed his contempt for the initiative and disregard for the safety of the city’s 3.9 million residents.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The former vice president launched a similar petition in July last year to put the loading of fuel rods — as well as eventual operation of the nuclear power plant — to a local vote.
The initiative won support from the Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union. However, the utility and legitimacy of holding a local referendum was thrown into doubt when Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) last week proposed a plan to hold a national referendum on the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
Jiang and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said the plant’s construction is a matter of national energy policy and power generation, and should therefore be decided with a national referendum rather than a local one.
Lu responded that holding a local referendum on the matter was authorized by the Act Governing New Taipei Referendums (新北市公民投票自治條例), passed by the New Taipei City Council in June last year, and was a local matter.
Article 11 of the Act on Sites for Establishment of Low Level Radioactive Waste Final Disposal Facility (低放射性廢棄物最終處置設施場址設置條例) stipulates that a local referendum be held in the city where a site is located within 30 days of it being publicly announced, and is not subject to the provisions of Article 2 of the Referendum Act, (公民投票法) Lu added.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
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
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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