A second Japanese-built nuclear reactor was installed at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant yesterday.
The 780-tonne reactor, designed by General Electric and built by Toshiba, was installed at the power plant in Gongliao (
"This marked a milestone in the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant," Huang Pei-shan, an official with the state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), told the Agence France-Presse.
PHOTO: AFP
Huang said that as of the end of August the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was 58 percent complete.
Conservation groups did not show up at the construction site yesterday, but pledged to take more steps to shoot down the project.
"This project must be stopped, given safety considerations of the plant and a shortage of places to store the nuclear waste generated by the plant," said Ho Tsung-hsun (
"We have recently filed a lawsuit against Taipower on charges of illegally setting aside budget," Ho said, referring to what he said was a broken pledge not to increase the budget when the project was first approved by the Legislative Yuan.
Ho's group plans to launch a nationwide referendum to decide on the fate of the half-complete project next year or in 2008, and also sponsor a regional anti-nuclear forum.
Since Taiwan's first nuclear plant became operational in 1987, nuclear power has generated at least 180,000 drums of low-radiation waste. Taipower had planned to ship the waste to North Korea but was forced to halt the scheme under pressure from South Korea and international conservationists.
The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant had been scheduled to come on line in July, but in 2000, the newly elected Democratic Progressive Party government scrapped the project following an election pledge made by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), triggering months of political turmoil.
The government restarted the project in February 2001.
The first unit of the plant is scheduled to become commence operating in July 2009 and the second one in July 2110.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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