The Executive Yuan yesterday said Taiwan will face electricity shortages, higher electricity rates and could invite international trade sanctions due to elevated carbon dioxide emissions if the incomplete Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) is scrapped.
Halting construction of the controversial plant could also lead to a slump in the stock market and political and economic instability, the Executive Yuan said in a brochure compiled by the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday.
Written in a question-and-answer format, the brochure lists 25 arguments often raised by anti-nuclear activists to demand an immediate halt to the plant, followed by counterarguments.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The pamphlet aims to convince the public that Taiwan needs to finish building the plant if it is to embark on a path to a low-carbon environment and a nuclear-free homeland.
According to the brochure, halting the project would put the nation at risk of having to ration electricity from 2015, when the unused capacity is estimated to be between 5 percent and 10 percent, with the risk intensifying to a real threat in 2018.
If the power plant does not become operational next year as scheduled, electricity prices will increase by 35 to 42 percent in 2016 and by 13 to 15 percent in 2018 compared with the rates recorded in October this year, the brochure says.
The Executive Yuan insisted that the plant is capable of producing the cheapest energy in Taiwan, at a price of less than NT$2 per kilowatt-hour, adding the costs of nuclear waste disposal and the decommissioning of the plant is included in the electricity price.
If the plant is abandoned, the nation would have to increase its reliance on fossil fuels — likely coal and gas — to meet electricity demand, the brochure says.
The problem of meeting the growing demand for energy cannot be immediately solved with alternative energy sources due to the various obstacles and difficulty of developing solar, wind or geothermal energy, the brochure says.
In that case, Taiwan wouid emit an additional of 7.51 million to 16.19 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, rendering it impossible for the country to reach its target of reducing emissions, the Executive Yuan said.
The brochure includes a section that seeks to address safety issues in which it rebutts an article published by Nature magazine in April 2011 that ranked two of Taiwan’s plants in a list of the world’s three most dangerous nuclear power plants.
The operational performance of Taiwan’s nuclear reactors have been rated above world standards by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to