On the evening of Monday, March 25, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), who stands with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in supporting nuclear power, met with Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), New Taipei City (新北市) Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) to discuss the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City, and related issues.
According to media reports, Jiang said at the meeting that “it is true that the government does not have a complete plan on how to handle nuclear waste.”
One reason nuclear power plants are so frightening is precisely that “it is true that the government does not have a complete plan on how to handle nuclear waste.”
Although he tried to moderate his statement, Jiang’s inadvertent admission that the government has no plans for the safe handling of nuclear waste will undoubtedly have an impact on the eventual fate of nuclear power plants in Taiwan.
If Jiang had any academic conscience and political morals, what he should have said was: “It is true that, so far, our government does not have a complete plan on how to handle nuclear waste. Not only that, the US, Japanese, Russian or French governments, despite their advanced use of nuclear energy, also don’t have a complete plan on how to deal with nuclear waste.”
There are three levels to this statement. On the first level, by virtue of having nuclear power plants, there will be nuclear waste. This waste is not the kind of poison that will be around for a mere 100 years: It is something we will have to live with for centuries.
Without a complete plan for the handling of nuclear waste, why is there so much talk about “nuclear safety? Does it not mean Ma’s statement that “without nuclear safety, there will be no Fourth Nuclear Power Plant” is just hot air?
On the second level, be it at nuclear waste storage sites on Lanyu (蘭嶼), also known as Orchid Island, or at any of the nation’s other three nuclear power plants, the existing temporary storage sites for nuclear waste are becoming overfull.
Since Ma and his clique have no way of handling the nuclear waste at these sites, how can they go on talking about building a fourth plant and producing more nuclear waste?
Finally, on the third level, at a time when there is no complete plan for dealing with nuclear waste, one wonders what astronomical sums will have to be spent before a solution is found, if ever.
Since it cannot be estimated how deep the money pit of nuclear waste treatment will be, how can Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) go on claiming that “nuclear power is the cheapest” of all energy sources? Does Taipower not include the cost of a final solution for the treatment of nuclear waste in the cost of nuclear energy production?
In short, Jiang’s statement that “it is true that the government does not have a complete plan on how to handle nuclear waste materials” is sufficient to poke a big hole in the balloon of lies about how cheap nuclear energy is.
Chang Kuo-tsai is a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers
Gogoro Inc was once a rising star and a would-be unicorn in the years prior to its debut on the NASDAQ in 2022, as its environmentally friendly technology and stylish design attracted local young people. The electric scooter and battery swapping services provider is bracing for a major personnel shakeup following the abrupt resignation on Friday of founding chairman Horace Luke (陸學森) as chief executive officer. Luke’s departure indicates that Gogoro is sinking into the trough of unicorn disillusionment, with the company grappling with poor financial performance amid a slowdown in demand at home and setbacks in overseas expansions. About 95