Legislators rejected the Atomic Energy Council's (AEC) budget late yesterday evening after it listed items which included funds for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant which the Executive Yuan decided to scrap in October.
In the budget proposal document presented by the AEC yesterday, about NT$12 million was marked for the nuclear power plant. Legislators from the Sci-tech Information Committee rejected the budget with a vote of 9 to 5.
"If the plant is to be cancelled, why do you ask for money?" KMT Legislator Lin Yi-shin (
Hsia argued, however, that the legal basis for the plant had not changed.
"The future of the plant is dependent on a decision by the Council of Grand Justices," he said.
The legitimacy of canceling the plant has been disputed since Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) announced the decision in October. Under pressure from opposition parties, the Executive Yuan has appealed to the Council of Grand Justices to judge the constitutionality of the decision it made.
The first meeting of the Council to discuss the issue is scheduled for Dec. 21.
According to the AEC's budget, NT$8.54 million was set aside for developing regulatory technology to ensure the safety of two advanced boiling water reactors. The two reactors were to be installed at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. An additional NT$3.3 million was proposed for regulating the safety of the plant during the process of its construction.
Hsia said he did not mind if the budget for the plant was cut, but added that if the government later decided to continue with the project, additional requests for funds might be necessary.
Meanwhile, Hsia admitted yesterday that the Executive Yuan had recently requested help from the AEC to rewrite the document it originally used to announce the plant's cancellation in late October.
The announcement and the reasons it listed for the plant's cancellation were criticized recently by 37 nuclear engineering professors from National Tsing Hua University.
Professors at Tsing Hua University, where nuclear energy research in Taiwan was initiated, said that the reasons were "unprofessional."
Hsia said yesterday that the AEC had refused to work with the Cabinet on the document.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
RSS