The Control Yuan yesterday censured state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) over its changes to the design of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant by up to 1,000 items, demanding the government not allow the plant to start operation unless it is safe.
Control Yuan member Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄), in charge of investigation into safety issues at the plant, said Taipower had made more than 1,000 arbitrary design changes without permission from General Electric Co (GE), which originally designed the plant.
“That Taipower only partially followed the original design and stuck with its plan to make the changes in defiance of orders from the Atomic Energy Council showed that it ignored nuclear security issues at the power plants,” Huang said.
Following the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsumami, the safety of nuclear power has resurfaced as a public concern, prompting the government to consider postponing the original scheduled opening of the fourth nuclear power plant by one year, to the end of 2013.
Huang urged the central government to push Taiwan’s participation in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and related non-government organizations to enhance the country’s nuclear inspections and its inclusion in a nuclear incident information system.
The Control Yuan also said the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) had committed serious errors in its solar energy promotion program.
The ministry encouraged farmers in Pingtung County to abandon their fish ponds, which had been blamed for serious land-subsidence problems because of overuse of underground water, and switch to solar energy production following Typhoon Morakot in August 2009.
However, earlier this year it changed its subsidy policy. It decided that the subsidies would not be disbursed from the day the contract was signed — as originally indicated — but on the day construction is completed. The move triggered complaints.
Control Yuan member Chao Jung-yao (趙榮耀), who initiated the motion to censure the ministry, said the ministry had violated the principle of good faith by arbitrarily changing the subsidy plan, which in turn damaged the government’s credibility and image.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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