Authorities yesterday attempted to ease fears of a Japan-style crisis at the nearly completed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) ahead of a mass protest this weekend.
The state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) faces an uphill battle to persuade the public that its nuclear facilities are safe after a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in 2011, crippling the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
In a similar situation as Japan, Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.
Two opinion polls in March showed a majority of Taiwanese oppose the new plant. Demonstrators plan a rally on Sunday calling for the government to abandon the project, which Taipower said cost more than NT$280 billion (US$9.4 billion) and is more than 90 percent completed.
“We have learned many lessons from the Fukushima incident. We have improved on the safety measures to ensure that a similar incident will not happen in Taiwan,” Taipower vice president Chen Pu-tsan (陳布燦) said.
Taipower has spent NT$10.2 billion on additional safety measures at the plant, including plans to build a 14.5m anti-tsunami dyke and install additional generators.
This month, a team of 45 Taiwanese and 12 international experts began a six-month inspection of the plant to test its systems and review safety.
“Even if an earthquake and tsunami of the same magnitude that struck Fukushima were to hit Taiwan, it would not have affected the fourth nuclear plant,” Chen said.
The three existing nuclear plants supply about 20 percent of Taiwan’s electricity. Construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant started in 1999, but has been repeatedly delayed by political wrangling.
Taipower says the country will face power shortages without a new nuclear plant. The Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門), New Taipei City, and the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District (萬里), New Taipei City, as well as several other power stations are due to be retired in the near future.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS