Several anti-nuclear civic groups yesterday expressed disappointment over what they called the government’s continued disregard of public concerns over the safety of nuclear power as Japan marked the third anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in its history.
Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣) said the Japanese government had taken several steps to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe, including introducing a regulation that prohibits nuclear power plants from being built on top of active fault lines and separating the regulatory body from the administrative body in charge of promoting nuclear power in its Nuclear Regulation Authority.
“The first [Jinshan] and the second [Guosheng] nuclear power plants in New Taipei City are located only 7km and 5km respectively from the active Shanchiao fault (山腳斷層), yet our government has done nothing about that,” Tsuei said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said the only aspect the government had tried to improve over the past three years was its skill at promoting nuclear power.
That was evidenced by the government’s efforts to purchase keywords from several search engines in August last year based on the names of prominent anti-nuclear activists to link to a pro-nuclear Web site run by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Energy, and its screening at movie theaters nationwide a commercial trumpeting its plan for a gradual move toward a nuclear-free homeland, Hung said.
Anti-nuclear Alliance of Fathers executive director Kobe Chih (池國平) said that although the Atomic Energy Council and Taiwan Power Co had sought to improve the seismic capacity of the nation’s four nuclear power plants and increase the height of their tsunami-protective walls by 6m, those endeavors would only “cure the symptoms, not the disease.”
“There is no way we can forecast the severity of compounded disasters,” Chih said.
“If a nuclear accident were to occur at the first or the second nuclear power plant in winter, the strong northeast winds could blow radioactive dust more than 50km from the plants, and people living outside the current 30km evacuation zone could also be forced to leave their homes,” he said.
Chih said a high-ranking official working for the New Taipei City Government told him personally last year that he had had difficulty drawing up a workable plan to evacuate 6 million people within the evacuation zones of the two plants.
“The government is perfectly aware of the possibility of a nuclear disaster occurring in Taiwan, but it has chosen to bury its head in the sand rather than acknowledging and dealing head-on with its inability to evacuate people in the event of a nuclear disaster,” Chih said.
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
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
Reports of Taiwanese going missing, being detained or interrogated, or having their personal liberties restricted in China increased about fourfold annually last year, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Last year, 221 Taiwanese who traveled to China were reported missing, were detained and interrogated, or otherwise had their personal freedom restricted, up from 55 the previous year, the council said. Reopening group tours to China would be risky, as it would leave travelers with no way to seek help through official channels after Beijing shut down dialogue between the associations tasked with handling cross-strait tourism, the MAC said. Taipei’s Taiwan Strait Tourism
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