President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday defended his administration’s efforts to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants, citing major precautionary measures at the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant that include abandoning the plant to prevent a nuclear disaster.
“A resolute handling measure allows us to sacrifice the plant if a big earthquake, tsunami or any disaster could cause radiation leaks. We would rather abandon the plant than cause a nuclear disaster,” he said at the Presidential Office while meeting with a group of nuclear experts from Japan.
Such a measure, which could be completed in 46 minutes, showed the government’s dedication to strengthening safety measures at local nuclear power plants after Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident two years ago, while continuing its efforts to reduce the use of nuclear power steadily and build a nuclear-free homeland eventually, he said.
“Taiwan pays more attention to the significance of the Fukushima accident than many other countries because, like Japan, Taiwan depends heavily on energy imports,” he said.
Of the nation’s electricity supply, 40 percent comes from fossil fuels, 30 percent from natural gas and nuclear power accounts for 18.5 percent. The rest is supplied by alternative energy sources.
The Ma administration has been promoting the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) amid growing concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants.
While Ma promised to resolve disputes over the plant through a national referendum, Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) told a forum on Monday that the government plans to complete the construction of the plant regardless.
Ma insisted yesterday that the government has conducted thorough inspections on operating nuclear power plants and the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant over the past two years, and said the government would allow the public to decide via a referendum whether the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should continue.
“We hope that the referendum will be held by the end of this year. It will be a very important decision for our energy policy,” he said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
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MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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