Driven by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus, the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee scheduled a review of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) yesterday about the extension or decommissioning of nuclear power plants, sparking protests against nuclear power outside the venue.
Taiwanese still hold misconceptions regarding nuclear power, believing it to be clean, inexpensive, safe and stable. Dealing with the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan in 2011 resulted in sky-high costs. Aside from that, decommissioning one nuclear power plant reactor would cost NT$400 billion (US$12.3 billion). Adding this to the cost of generating nuclear power, it is not at all inexpensive, not to mention the issue of nuclear waste storage.
Additionally, generating electricity from nuclear energy requires a large amount of water for cooling. Over the past few years, the summer season has become increasingly hotter worldwide, forcing 70 percent of France’s nuclear power plants to reduce or even stop operations when heat waves strike. The Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) also had to reduce operations in June 2019, as sea water temperatures had risen too high.
Nuclear power is not only ineffective in solving electricity shortage problems during the summer, but might even make the problem worse.
Therefore, Taiwan must give up on nuclear power. It is a heat-intolerant, unstable and costly resource that also requires imported fuel rods. Taiwan has the best conditions and potential for developing sustainable resources and geothermal power. Industry professionals, officials and academics should come together to invest resources into developing a stable and fully autonomous sustainable energy source.
John Yu is a civil servant in Taipei.
Translated by Nicole Wong
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS