Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday proposed that the nation’s capital be relocated outside the “evacuation zone” in the 50km radius around operational nuclear power plants.
“Of the 211 nuclear power plants operating around the world, there are only six plants that have more than 3 million people living within 30km of them, and two of them are the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Shihmen District (石門) and the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in the same city’s Wanli District (萬里),” Lin Shih-chia said.
If the yet to be completed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮) — also in New Taipei City — goes into operation, then that would bring the number to three, she added.
Photo: CNA
Lin Shih-chia said that Greater Taipei is the political and financial center of Taiwan, and is also where the central government’s offices are located, so if a nuclear disaster occurred at the two operational plants, the officials at the National Rescue Command Center that are meant to direct the nation during an emergency would have to be evacuated too.
“Nuclear safety is national safety,” Lin Chia-lung said, adding that the storage of high-level radioactive waste inside the power plants means that the Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫), which provides most of the water for the Greater Taipei area, is constantly under the threat of contamination from nuclear leaks or accidents.
He said that the nation’s government should take into consideration that after the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in 2011, the Japanese government had decided to designate Osaka as its “backup” capital in the event that a major disaster crippled Tokyo.
The legislators said that if the government wants to continue pursuing its current nuclear policy, then it should consider amending the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Control Act (核子反應器設施管制法) to provide for relocating or planning to relocate the nation’s capital to Greater Taichung, because it is further away from the evacuation zones around the two operational and one under-construction nuclear plants in northern Taiwan and the operational Ma-anshan (馬鞍山) Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union founder Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said that in both the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine and the Fukushima meltdown, the areas contaminated by radioactive fallout were larger than the officially designated evacuation zones. In addition, while hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated in both incidents, if such a disaster occurred in northern Taiwan, the number of evacuees would be in the millions, Shih said.
‘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
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
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