At a Cabinet meeting yesterday, most of the ministers in attendance favored halting construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四), but a final decision on whether to do so was not made.
Chen Po-chih (
Other agencies, including the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Environmental Protection Administration, echoed the CEPD's view, arguing that alternative projects are feasible and places for dumping nuclear waste are difficult to find.
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Council Hsia Der-yu (夏德鈺), however disagreed with the CEPD's proposal, saying that Taiwan had no problems with handling nuclear waste. Hsia added that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was safe and that contingency measures had been included in the event of natural disaster.
Chiou I-jen (
"The premier will fully review the project's political, social and economic impact before a final decision is made. The Cabinet's decision will nevertheless be made no later than the end of this year," Chiou said.
He added that a public hearing would not necessarily be held to debate the controversial issue.
Chiou said that the premier would look carefully into three specific aspects of the issue. "First, the nuclear safety and the handling of nuclear waste. Second, feasibility of alternative projects, and third, whether it is illegal [to scrap the plant]," Chiou said, refusing to give a definite answer as to whether the Cabinet was in favor of halting the plant.
DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
When asked whether it were possible for the Cabinet to continue construction of the plant and shut down the first and second plants -- as opposition legislators from the KMT and New Party have suggested -- Chiou replied that "the possibility is very unlikely."
"Even if the first and second plants are scrapped, there will still be nuclear waste. Besides, it is more expensive to shut down the two plants than to leave them there. The suggestion won't work," Chiou said.
Chiou added that the Cabinet, so far, has not been pressured by any US interests and, in his view, "the US is not likely to meddle since the rights of GE, the plant's contractor, have been guaranteed by a legally binding contract."
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
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