South Korea should reduce its reliance on nuclear power in view of public discontent with corruption in the industry and Japan’s difficulty tackling the aftermath of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, a group weighing up the problem said yesterday.
The South Korean Ministry of Energy published the findings of a study group of 60 representatives from industry, academic institutions and civic bodies that recommended reducing to between 22 percent and 29 percent the portion of electricity that can be generated by nuclear power. That compares with 41 percent proposed in a government plan for 2030.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy currently generates a third of its electricity from nuclear power as part of long-term efforts to replace imported oil and gas.
Agreement on a range of 22 to 29 percent was reached “based upon consensus to minimize social conflict over the proportion of nuclear power generation,” the study group said in a statement released by the energy ministry.
The government will hold public hearings over the report’s conclusions and plans to draw up final revisions to energy policy in December, it said.
The group also recommended keeping the proportion of renewable energy at 11 percent as planned. It suggested imposing taxes on coal-fired power stations and lowering taxes on liquefied natural gas and kerosene.
Public discontent over nuclear power has been fanned by a scandal over the use of fake certificates, which since last year has prompted a series of reactor shutdowns in South Korea.
The nuclear industry has been criticized for breeding a culture of secrecy that led to corrupt practices among officials involved in safety certification.
Six of 23 reactors remain off-line, including three halted in May to replace cables supplied using bogus certificates. Authorities on Thursday said 100 people, including a top former state utility official, had been indicted on corruption charges.
The head of the group, Kim Chang-seob, said the figures provided were intended strictly as guidelines to take account of trends and growing discontent over the nuclear sector.
“Our suggestion is to set the direction in the policy for social consent, as there are huge social conflicts,” Kim said.
Anxiety has also risen over repeated setbacks by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) in its efforts to halt radiation leaks and make safe the Fukushima plant north of Tokyo, which was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
TEPCO on Thursday said radiation levels in seawater just outside the plant had climbed to their highest level in two years.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been criticized since he declared the problems at Fukushima “under control.”
The Japanese Nuclear Regulation Agency earlier this month ordered TEPCO to draft in additional workers and report on its measures to tackle the cleanup.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last