Former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) both instructed the signing of unpublished agreements with China regarding the storage of Taiwan’s nuclear waste in Gansu Province in China, a lawmaker said yesterday in a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan.
Siew, who was premier from 1997 to 2000 and later served as vice president, asked Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to sign a nuclear waste storage deal with Beijing when he was premier, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said yesterday.
Tsai added that Chen, who is serving a 20-year sentence for corruption, also arranged a deal between a Taiwanese technical consulting firm and the state-owned China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) regarding nuclear waste storage.
Tsai called on the government to use those agreements after Beijing in April expressed an interest in waste storage projects.
In response, Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) confirmed that a memorandum of understanding was signed when Siew was premier.
However, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said that the agreement was suspended after the transfer of power in 2000.
The government does not rule out any possibility in handling the nation’s nuclear waste, Jiang said, but added that several factors would have to be included in the decisionmaking process, including Washington’s position on the matter.
Tsai first mentioned CNNC’s interest in handling Taiwan’s nuclear waste in a plenary session on April 9, when he told Jiang that the company had offered to store Taiwan’s nuclear waste in its storage site in Gansu Province.
Jiang said he had no information on the offer, adding that “politically, it would not be a feasible option.”
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.
RSS