Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday said Taiwan could not afford to abandon nuclear power in the near future and should enhance its nuclear energy program by developing advanced technologies, such as nuclear fusion.
“Taiwanese scientists should work on nuclear fusion research and engineering to explore new methods to replace current technologies, which are based on nuclear fission, and are a by-product of the Manhattan Project developed during World War II,” Lee said on the second day of a two-day visit to Hsinchu County.
While the nation is embroiled in the debate over the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮), and nuclear technology does pose threats of radiation leaks and other risks to human health, theproduction of nuclear energy is not all bad, he said.
There are alternative ways to generate nuclear electricity, but no one in Taiwan was willing to discuss them, he said.
The nuclear-free homeland initiative promoted by several politicians, such as former Democratic Progressive Party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), is well-intentioned, Lee said, but Taiwan is unlikely to secure sufficient electricity supplies from alternative energy sources with its high dependence on imported oil and gas.
Wind and solar sources of energy both have limitations and could not fill the void left by nuclear power, he said.
Between now and the implementation of nuclear fusion projects, biomass energy would be a good option to meet the nation’s electricity demand, as more than 200,000 hectares of fallow land could be used to plant sugarcane or corn to produce alcohol fuel, which is a mature and widespread technology used in countries such as Brazil, he said.
Lee said he would not participate in the government’s proposed referendum on continuing the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
Commenting on the fisheries agreement signed by Taiwan and Japan on Wednesday, which assured Taiwanese vessels a larger intervention-free fishing zone around the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), Lee said the agreement would benefit Taiwanese fishermen in operating in fishing grounds they have worked for more than a century.
Lee he was glad that the agreement had finally been signed 17 years after negotiations began, and said that Japan had made concessions in the talks for a number of reasons.
Japan would like to strengthen its partnership with Taiwan in the wake of heightened tensions with China over the Diaoyutais, Lee said, adding that it also might feel like it needs to repay Taiwanese for the huge donations they made after a tsunami and earthquake rocked Japan in March 2011.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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