New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday reiterated his support for reactivating the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in his city’s Shihmen District (石門).
Hou said that if elected president, one of his most important tasks would be ensuring that households and industrial users do not experience electricity shortages.
As long as expert assessments find that reopening the nuclear plant would be safe, “I will reopen it,” he said, adding that this has been his position on energy policy.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Power Co
The Jinshan plant was Taiwan’s oldest nuclear power plant. The 40-year operating licenses of its two reactors expired on Dec. 5, 2017, and July 15, 2018, respectively, and they were decommissioned on Dec. 10, 2018, and on July 15, 2019.
Hou reaffirmed his stance on the power plant after criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) energy policy the day before.
When it took power in May 2016, the DPP prioritized the phasing out of nuclear power by 2025, when the license of Taiwan’s last active nuclear reactor was to expire.
It has set a goal of achieving an electricity mix of 50 percent natural gas, 30 percent coal and 20 percent renewable energy, but is behind schedule on its renewable energy development, and has run into setbacks in building its natural gas capacity and infrastructure.
The delays have led to concerns that Taiwan would face energy shortfalls in 2025 and 2026, and a major lack of low-carbon energy in the second half of the decade, leading to growing calls for reactivating or extending the service of nuclear power plants.
At a news conference yesterday, the DPP questioned Hou’s interest in reactivating nuclear facilities, saying that he appeared against reactivating them while he was New Taipei City’s deputy mayor from 2010 to 2018.
Citing media reports, DPP Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that Hou, as deputy mayor, called for the decommissioning of the nation’s first two nuclear power plants on time and has often said there can be no nuclear power without safety or a way to dispose of the waste.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS