Civil groups yesterday urged legislators to invest the time and money needed to extend the lifespan of the nation’s nuclear power plants into other energy infrastructure instead, amid a drive by opposition lawmakers to use reactors as a relatively clean power source.
Nuclear power is not a solution to Taiwan’s energy or carbon emissions problems, the groups said, a day before the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee is scheduled to review proposed amendments to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法).
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan member Cheng Tai-chin (鄭泰鈞) told a news conference at the demonstration that the lawmakers’ bid to reactivate obsolete reactors recklessly endangers public safety.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
It would cost an estimated NT$110 billion (US$3.38 billion) to keep the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County online, a figure that only includes the expenses for sourcing reactor parts and handling nuclear waste, Cheng said.
The environmental impact assessment and reactor inspections necessary for safely operating a power plant take at least five years, meaning that Taiwan would get no power from any reactor before 2030, he said.
The billions that would be spent on nuclear energy — if the lawmakers’ proposal became reality — could be put to better use by building renewable energy infrastructure, Cheng said.
Legislators and entrepreneurs repeatedly call nuclear power a type of green energy, but the RE100 renewable energy initiative does not recognize that claim, he said, adding that many Taiwanese tech companies and other heavy energy users are members of the initiative.
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association attorney Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) said the risks of nuclear mishaps are higher in earthquake-prone Taiwan.
The nation has no safe areas to evacuate people to should a significant nuclear incident occur, she said, adding that economic growth should not take precedence over safety.
Energy saving, energy storage technology, renewables and improving energy management are all viable alternatives to nuclear power, she said.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) should have a chance to show the price tag for keeping nuclear power before lawmakers amend the act, Mom Loves Taiwan secretary-general Yang Shun-mei (楊順美) said.
Taipower’s public statements from 2014 say the company believes that extending the service life of the nation’s three then-active nuclear power plants would cost NT$35 billion to NT$40 billion, she said.
That figure has likely risen as the number of reactor components that need to be replaced must have increased since that time, Yang said.
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Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
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CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but