The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has not ruled out closing the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) — the country’s first nuclear power plant — sooner than scheduled, providing that the fourth nuclear power plant functions stably when it comes on stream, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
The government would prefer not to extend the life of the three nuclear power plants that are currently in operation, Shih said in a presentation to the legislature’s Economics Committee.
However, construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市) — also known as the Longmen Nuclear Power Plant — which began in 1999, would continue, he said.
If it comes online in time, the reactors of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant could be shut down sooner than the dates scheduled in 2018 and 2019, he added.
“Safety is the basic consideration. We are confident that the No. 4 plant will begin operations as scheduled,” he said in response to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung’s (丁守中) question on whether Shih was certain of the date the new plant would start production.
Meanwhile, the MOEA has withdrawn an application that was submitted to the Atomic Energy Council to extend the life of the Jinshan plant, Shih said.
The question of when the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), also known as the second nuclear power plant, would be retired depended on the overall power supply situation in the country, he said. It must be ensured that there would be no power shortages (when the plant was shut down), he added.
He also said that Taiwan had no timetable for achieving a nuclear-free environment. Nuclear power policies should be made on the basis that there would be no power rationing, that electricity rates would be reasonable and that global demands to reduce carbon emissions would be met, he said.
Whether to proceed with construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant has become an issue since a nuclear disaster occurred at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in March as a result of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
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