Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday told Cabinet officials to arrange a visit to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), to gain the necessary knowledge to defend the government’s policy to complete the facility.
Jiang issued the directive at a Cabinet meeting, Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said.
Cheng said Jiang wanted all Cabinet officials to visit the near-completed power plant to gain information so that they can speak out in defense of the Cabinet’s stance.
The Cabinet yesterday published a pamphlet of questions and answers on the government’s nuclear energy policy, with 14,000 copies available free of charge to people working at the Executive Yuan.
In the pamphlet, the Cabinet dismisses concerns over the lack of repositories for the disposal of nuclear waste as a reason to oppose the power plant, saying that it is international practice that a government builds a nuclear power plant and looks for a repository for spent nuclear fuel simultaneously.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) has been looking for a repository for spent fuel rods in a stable geological formation, while low-activity radioactive waste could be placed in Daren Township (達仁), Taitung County, or Wuciou Township (烏坵), Kinmen County, if residents give their consent in a local referendum.
Daren and Wuciou were selected by the Ministry of Economic Affairs as potential final repositories for nuclear waste in September 2010, but residents and elected officials in the districts have voiced opposition to the plan.
The pamphlet led to an hour-long discussion at the meeting.
An official who asked to remain anonymous said some officials doubted that the two proposals for a repository for nuclear waste disposal were workable.
“The two proposals are not possible solutions to the problem of disposal of nuclear waste,” Deputy Minister of the Interior Lin Tzu-ling (林慈玲) said.
“The project to develop a repository had been called off due to strong opposition from the Hualien County Government. Both the Taitung County Government and the Kinmen County Government are opposed to referendums,” Lin said.
In Taiwan, low-level nuclear waste produced by the six reactors at the three operating nuclear power plants is placed in a waste storage facility on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), off the coast of Taitung County, while high-level waste and spent fuel rods are stored in cooling pools at the three plants.
Public Construction Commission Minister Chen Jeng-chuan (陳振川) said he doubted chances of nuclear waste being disposed anywhere on Taiwan proper while Orchid Island residents remain concerned about the safety of the nuclear waste.
People fear nuclear power because they are not always well-informed about the scientific principles of the design and construction of nuclear power plants and because they have no confidence in the government, Chen said.
Chen suggested that the government encourage members of the public, such as Taipower employees, to speak up for the safety of nuclear power plants.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS