Officials of the Cabinet's Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said yesterday that the future of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be decided as soon as possible in order to minimize expenditure on repairing structural damage caused by the halt in construction in the event that the project is to resume.
"The later the decision is made, the greater will be the effort needed to reinforce the damaged structure," AEC Vice Chairman Ouyang Min-shen (
Ouyang said that some exposed steel bars at the site had started to rust and that these required further expenditure and work to repair.
Construction of the plant, which is about 30 percent complete, was halted last October by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄).
Following Monday's interpretation by the Council of Grand Justices, the opposition parties in the Legislative Yuan informed the Executive Yuan that any political negotiations aimed at ending the current political deadlock would not be carried out until construction of the power plant was resumed.
Ouyang, who is in charge of regulating both the nuclear safety and construction quality aspects of the project, said that inefficient implementation of an important national project like the nuclear power plant would cause huge social losses.
There was widespread speculation yesterday that the Executive Yuan intends to prolong the controversy surrounding the plant until the next legislative election, which will be held at the end of the year.
Ouyang said he had stated several times that the issue of whether to cease construction of the plant could not be decided by the Executive Yuan alone.
Instead, Ouyang said, the status of the plant and whether construction should begin again would have to be solved by legislation.
Ouyang said that he was happy that the opinion given by the Grand Justices was similar to his own view.
Facing an uncertain future in the shadow of the proposed plant, residents of Kungliao township (貢寮), in Taipei County, said yesterday that the continuing political struggle had shown that their "right to live" had been neglected.
"From Premier Chang's announcement last October, to the Grand Justices' explanation, we Kungliao residents feel like we have been sidelined.
"Who has ever thought about our feelings?" Kungliao township Chief Chao Kuo-tung (
Responding to the explanation given by the Grand Justices, Chao called for a referendum to decide the future of the plant.
Chao said that he would cooperate with local anti-nuclear activists from the Yenliao Anti-nuclear Self-help Association (
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