More than 280 law practitioners yesterday launched a petition against a referendum to scrap the policy for a nuclear-free homeland by 2025, a gesture echoing another petition organized last week by more than 500 academics.
The referendum, initiated by Nuclear Myth Busters founder Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), asks if people agree to abolish Article 95-1 of the Electricity Act (電業法), which stipulates that all nuclear power generation facilities should stop operations by 2025.
It is one of 10 referendums to be held alongside the nine-in-one local elections on Saturday.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
As of yesterday morning, the petition had gathered 283 signatures from 121 lawyers, 46 law academics and more than 100 law students and law practitioners, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association said.
The 2002 Basic Environment Act (環境基本法) stipulates that the government must propose plans to make Taiwan nuclear-free, but the 2025 timeframe was last year written into the Electricity Act, association lawyer Tsai Ya-yin (蔡雅瀅) said, adding that no delay should be allowed.
New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌); Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) and Chou Chun-mi (周春米); as well as members of the Environmental Rights Foundation, the Taiwan Law Society and National Taiwan University’s Policy and Law Center for Environmental Sustainability also signed the petition.
Huang, who on Friday last week represented opponents in a televised debate with referendum advocate Liao Yen-peng (廖彥朋), said that voters should first answer the question: Where should nuclear waste — especially highly radioactive waste — be stored?
Scientists raised the question more than four decades ago when more nuclear power plants were being constructed, but even the groups trusted by nuclear power supporters — Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) and the Atomic Energy Council — have yet to propose any waste disposal solutions, he said.
Even if the referendum is passed, the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), which was again mothballed in 2015 before construction was complete, could not be immediately started, Huang added.
According to council regulations, a proposal to update a nuclear power generator’s operating permit should be filed five to 15 years before the permit expires, Environmental Jurists Association chairman Chang Yu-yin (張譽尹) said.
Of the nation’s six nuclear power generators at three operating plants, only the permits for the two units at Pingtung County’s Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant could be extended within the given timeframe, as they expire on July 26, 2024, and May 17, 2025, Chang said, adding that it was too late to extend the permits for New Taipei City’s Jinshan plant in Shihmen District (石門) and the Guosheng plant in Wanli District (萬里).
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS