Japanese representatives from the No Nuke Asia Forum (NNAF,
Taipower responded by issuing a statement in which it denied the charge. It said it had signed only one agreement -- with North Korea.
TEPU spokesman Pan Han-chiang (潘翰疆), quoting the NNAF and Russia's Ecoline Web site, said Taipower had asked Japan's Asia TAT Trading Co Ltd to act as its agent in negotiating the shipment.
According to the NNAF, the documents were collected by environmental protection unions in Russia and Japan.
Russia's Kurchatov Institute, a nuclear-research center, is said to have agreed to bury 200,000 barrels of Taipower's nuclear waste on Sakhalin Island over a period of 10 years.
Taipower would pay US$800 million for the storage and another US$2.5 billion to have the storage site built, according to the Russian environmental group Ecodefense, which published news of the alleged transaction on the Ecoline Web site.
Russia military aircraft, carrying 180 barrels on each flight, would fly the waste from Taiwan to Russia, the report said.
Ecodefense said the vice chairman of the Duma had promised to lobby parliamentarians to get President Vladimir Putin to change the Nature Protection Law to allow foreign nuclear waste to be shipped into Russia.
Hiroo Komura (
"Amending the Nature Protection Law will probably take place in September," he said.
The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant will adopt a system developed in Japan called the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR). Many Japanese facilities use ABWRs, including the nuclear plant at Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, which has suffered a string of embarrassing accidents and reactor shutdowns.
Tadao Yabe (
"Our nuclear plant's No. 6 ABWR, which went online at 1996, has been shut down five times because of accidents. The No. 7 ABWR, which began operations in 1997, has been stopped three times for similar reasons. This type of reactor is still in the testing stage," he said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft