New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and nuclear power advocate Liao Yen-peng (廖彥朋) yesterday debated the cost of nuclear power ahead of a referendum on the issue alongside the nine-in-one elections on Saturday next week.
Hosted by the Central Election Commission and broadcast by the Public Television Service, the event was one of five televised debates on the referendum on scrapping Article 95-1 of the Electricity Act (電業法), which stipulates that all nuclear power facilities should stop operations by 2025.
Liao, one of the referendum’s initiators, said that the nation’s power supply system might collapse without nuclear power, as most of its baseload electricity is generated at coal-fired and nuclear energy facilities.
Liao said he supports the development of renewable sources of energy and proposed that the ratio of such sources be increased from 5 percent to 10 percent by 2025.
However, renewable sources can never replace nuclear power, because they are unstable and energy storage facilities are expensive, he said.
“Every kilowatt-hour [kWh] of nuclear power means a kilowatt-hour of reduction in coal-fired power,” Liao said, adding that maintaining nuclear power would prevent more people from developing lung cancer due to air pollution caused by fossil fuels.
The government should resume the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), where not every resident is opposed to the plant, given that it offered many job opportunities before it was officially mothballed in 2015, Liao said.
Huang, a lawmaker representing Gongliao and other districts near the Jinshan (金山) and Guosheng (國聖) nuclear power plants, said that more discussion would be needed, even if the referendum passes, before work could restart on the mothballed plant.
To gauge public opinion on nuclear power plants, the referendum’s initiators should propose other referendums on resuming work on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and extending the operating permits of other three nuclear power plants, Huang said.
The suspension of some nuclear power generation units was not caused by environmentalists, as nuclear energy supporters claim, but because of maintenance failures by state-run Taiwan Power Co and insufficient supervision by the Atomic Energy Council, he said.
Nuclear security, which is touted by supporters of nuclear energy — particularly professors of nuclear engineering at National Tsing Hua University — might only exist in laboratory tests with perfect conditions and operators, he said.
The average cost of nuclear power has long been “beautified,” as spending on nuclear waste disposal and plant decommissioning are not properly taken into account, Huang said.
Liao is also gathering signatures for another referendum proposal that asks if people agree to move low-level radioactive waste stored on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) back to the nuclear power plants.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
RSS