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.
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
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
RSS