During the first day of the new legislative session yesterday, anti-nuclear power environmentalists again gathered in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, calling on legislators to stop the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), and withdraw the referendum proposal on the plant.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union founding chairman Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said the referendum proposal suggested by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) is aimed at exploiting the “problematic” Referendum Act (公民投票法), ignoring public opinion and supporting the Cabinet’s will of allowing the plant to go into operation.
Although Lee last week publicly announced that he wished to withdraw the proposal, Shih said the proposal has already passed the first reading and is scheduled for a second reading in this session, so even if Lee claims to want to withdraw the proposal, he still has to go through procedures to make it effective.
Photo: CNA
“Lee should finish going through the procedures as soon as possible. The Legislative Yuan should acknowledge the public’s wish to bring a halt to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project,” he said, urging the KMT caucus not to block the proposal withdrawal.
The protesters said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) approval rating had already dropped to 9.2 percent and if he does not stop the construction project, it may even plunge lower.
Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) of the Green Party Taiwan said, ahead of next month’s National Day, that “we do not have anything to celebrate, because we have so many nuclear power plants in the nation and Taiwan is the only country that builds nuclear power plants right next to its capital.”
Pan said the public is invited to join in a “Fourth Nuclear Power Plant termination” relay walk around the nation, ending at the Presidential Office on Jan. 1.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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