The Ministry of Economic Affairs has invited non-governmental experts to assist with safety checks and tests of the almost-completed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮), Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) said yesterday.
The safety review and tests are to begin on April 2, Chang said while answering reporters’ questions before attending a hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee.
Asked when the tests and checks would be completed, he cited Lin Tsung-yao (林宗堯), a former member of the Fourth Nuclear Power Safety Monitoring Committee at the Atomic Energy Council (AEC), as saying: “In about six months.”
Lin, who formerly worked as an engineer at US-based General Electric Co, quit the AEC committee in September 2011, two months after he published a 5,000-word report detailing problems at the power plant.
The problems, Lin said in his report, center on issues with the initial design, procurement problems, hasty construction, tests run by inexperienced personnel and ineffective monitoring mechanisms.
Lin will be one of the “external experts” invited to do the safety checks and tests.
During the hearing, Chang voiced his support for a proposal by lawmakers to set up a special legislative committee to address issues concerning nuclear-energy safety.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) brought up the proposal, which he said has won the endorsement of 92 of the 113 lawmakers.
Chang said that he hoped that the proposed special committee will be made up of “genuine experts,” instead of people representing organizations that might have vested interests.
Ting said such a special legislative committee could conduct a probe into the nuclear power plant and deliver the results to a plenary session of the legislature for a vote that would eventually decide whether the controversial project should be scrapped.
That way, there would be no need to hold an “energy and money-consuming” referendum on the issue, Ting said.
Meanwhile, internal KMT sources revealed earlier in the day a plan for executive members of the party and members of a KMT policy presentation conference to visit the plant on Friday to be briefed on the disputed facility.
Citing KMT Vice Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), the sources said the transparency of information related to the nuclear power plant is “very important.”
The party is organizing a tour to inspect every aspect of the long-running nuclear power project, Tseng said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS