President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said that the success Sweden and Finland have had in finding permanent storage sites for their nuclear waste means that the countries could serve as a model for Taiwan’s nuclear industry.
Ma said that finding a place to store the nation’s radioactive waste is a problem because whatever site is chosen is always met with opposition from anti-nuclear activists and local residents.
Sweden and Finland are expected to complete building underground repositories for storing their radioactive waste in 2027 and 2022 respectively, the president said.
In Sweden, the choice of Osthammar as the storage location obtained the support of more than 80 percent of local residents, he said.
“We very much hope to learn from Sweden’s and Finland’s experiences,” Ma said as he received several experts from the two Nordic countries who are visiting Taiwan to attend a conference on radioactive waste disposal.
In the 1980s, Sweden voted in a referendum to shut down all of its nuclear reactors. However, the country has since reversed course and is now planning to build new reactors.
Ma said he was told that the Swedish government has been very successful in communicating with the Swedish public, the majority of whom think that Sweden needs nuclear energy to meet its economic development needs.
In the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, Taiwan set a goal of gradually phasing out its use of nuclear power.
However, Ma said that until this goal is achieved, the nation must find an alternative to atomic energy, which currently accounts for 18.4 percent of its total electricity.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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