US energy experts yesterday provided government officials with possible alternatives to nuclear energy, recommending an immediate halt to construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四廠).
Meeting with members of a Ministry of Economic Affairs task force charged with reviewing the project at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, the experts stressed that alternatives to nuclear energy could be cost-effective.
The four energy analysts, John Byrne, Edward Smeloff, Amory Lovins and his wife, Hunter Lovins, whose visit was sponsored by the US-based W Alton Jones Foundation, began their visit to Taiwan yesterday by presenting practical information on new technologies which are being developed in the energy sector.
They said that energy efficiency should be improved and renewable energy sources considered.
During the meeting, Smeloff referred to his previous experience of closing of a nuclear power plant to illustrate that alternative sources of power could cost the consumer less and yet not be a burden to the economy.
Smeloff served on the elected board of directors of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the fifth-largest publicly owned utility in the US, between 1987 and 1997.
Smeloff's comments were greeted with words of positive support from some members of the economics ministry task force.
DPP Legislator Lai Chin-lin (
"If sound cost analysis by US experts tells us that building nuclear power plants is not as cheap as Taipower (
Some members were skeptical, however, because they believe that Taiwan is a different case from other countries because of its growing population and limited land.
Wang Chung-yu (
The economics ministry's task force is expected to decide by mid-September whether to continue with the controversial power project.
The visiting energy experts also visited the ministry's Energy Commission (能源會) yesterday, saying that the huge capital investment and corresponding ecological burden of nuclear and coal plants needed to be addressed head-on to establish a more sustainable long-term power policy.
They said that it was necessary to phase out uneconomical -- including nuclear -- power plants, as part of a transition to a more market-oriented electricity system, adding that it was clearly necessary to abandon the controversial nuclear power plant project.
Energy commission officials, however, said that Taiwan was a small island, which lacked natural resources.
"Because of this situation, the project for the nuclear plant is still under debate. The fact is, however, that we're facing power shortage problems," Chen Chao-yih (
Energy commission officials told the Taipei Times that Taiwan was not falling behind the international community in the energy sector because it was working on adopting alternatives, such as wind power and methane collected from garbage landfill sites. They added that eight wind power plants will be completed by the end of 2001.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the