President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he hoped Taipei and Beijing would cooperate on nuclear security after a devastating earthquake and tsunami sparked a radiation leak at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear power plant.
Ma said that while the plant is 2,200km away from Taiwan, China is building many nuclear power plants, some are located along its coast and are therefore much closer to Taiwan.
“We hope both sides could have some kind of cooperation in this area to minimize the damage we would face in a nuclear crisis,” he said. “It is about the security of not only both sides, but also the region as a whole.”
Ma said he hoped the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) would take the matter seriously, adding that ensuring the nation’s safety with regard to nuclear energy was a matter that would have to be addressed, he said.
Thousands of people took to the streets in Taipei on Sunday to demonstrate against nuclear energy and demand an immediate halt to construction at the nation’s Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
Ma yesterday said he agreed with some of the protesters’ slogans.
“They shouted the slogan: ‘I love Taiwan, I don’t want a nuclear disaster,’ but I want to say: ‘I love Taiwan, I want nuclear safety, because without nuclear safety, Taiwan won’t even exist,’” Ma said.
Ma also asked officials to use easy-to-understand language to explain complex nuclear safety issues, adding that only when the public understands the problem could it feel reassured.
AEC Deputy Minister Shieh Der-jhy (謝得志), who was invited to speak at the meeting, said nuclear security should not be the sole responsibility of Taipower, but also the government and the public.
Shieh said Taipower was facing two major problems: It has been understaffed and many of its employees are getting older, with several due to retire within a decade.
In addition, the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) has restricted the company from obtaining the best equipment because of bidding regulations, he said.
Making matters worse is the fact that the council is scheduled to be downgraded from a second-tier government agency to a third-tier one under the National Science -Council, making it more difficult to exercise its power, he said.
Taipower vice president Hsu Hwai-chiung (徐懷瓊) said Taiwan’s four nuclear power plants were 10 times safer than the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. He did not elaborate.
However, he said the nuclear crisis in Japan gave them an opportunity to re-examine the design of the facilities and immediate improvements would be made if necessary.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) said Taipower had proposed eight improvement measures since Japan’s nuclear incident and hoped to complete seven by the end of next month.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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