Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), the nation’s biggest electricity generator, will probably delay the startup of a nuclear plant for a fourth time after the former government ordered a suspension of the project’s construction.
The state-run utility may begin commercial operations at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in the second half of 2010, compared with a previous target of July next year, Department of Nuclear Regulation director Chen Yi-bin (陳宜彬) said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration ordered Taipower to halt construction in 2000 because of opposition from residents. He reinstated the project in 2001 after the Council of Grand Justices ruled the decision was flawed as lawmakers were not consulted.
The change in the former government’s stand caused some contractors to run into difficulties getting bank loans, Chen Yi-bin said.
“Construction has not been proceeding smoothly,” he said.
The plant has two units, with a planned capacity of 2,700 megawatts, accounting for 6 percent of the nation’s installed capacity when completed.
Work was 89 percent complete for the plant’s first unit and 78 percent for the second unit as of the end of August, the Web site for the Atomic Energy Council in Taipei said.
The plant is expected to start generating electricity before the end of next year, while some tests will be needed before commercial operations, Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元), chief engineer at Taipower, said by telephone yesterday.
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
Taiwan’s property transactions in the first half of this year fell 26.4 percent year-on-year to about 130,000 units, as credit controls and mortgage restrictions dampened demand, data from the Ministry of the Interior showed yesterday. Keelung saw the steepest decline, with transactions plummeting 45.6 percent to just 2,041 units — the lowest since the ministry began its survey in 2006. In contrast, Miaoli County was the only region to experience year-on-year growth, with transactions rising 2.4 percent to 3,229 units. Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) attributed the increase in deals in Miaoli, particularly Jhunan (竹南) and Toufen (頭份) townships, to spillover demand