The nation could spend an additional NT$250 billion (US$8.09 billion) annually on power generation if it phases out nuclear power, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy spokesman Huang Hsin-hua (黃心華) said yesterday after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members participated in anti-nuclear parades.
Over the past few years, Taiwan has spent a considerable amount on the DPP’s goal of achieving a nuclear power-free homeland by 2025, Huang said.
The government could have used the money on social welfare, long-term care, expanding public transportation and building up the military, he said, adding that it would have been unnecessary to cut the pensions of veterans and civil servants.
Photo: CNA
Despite the DPP’s campaign for phasing out nuclear power, it was former premier William Lai (賴清德) last year who chose to restart the No. 2 reactor of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), he said.
The No. 2 reactor is scheduled to be decommissioned by March 14, 2023, according to the Atomic Energy Council.
The nation could face surging power generation costs, greater environmental problems and an unstable power supply due to the slow development of power generated from renewable resources, increased air pollution and unreliable natural gas reserves, Huang added.
The government should propose reasonable energy policies that gradually reduce nuclear power use to ensure that people have a stable power supply and reasonable electricity prices, he said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who joined an anti-nuclear parade in Taipei yesterday, should fairly assess various means of power generation, as well as their associated waste disposal costs and health risks, he said.
Tsai should not mobilize DPP members to participate in parades just to gain votes for next year’s presidential and legislative elections, Huang said, adding that Tsai should launch concrete measures to improve the lives of people with diseases caused by air pollution.
KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday visited nuclear power proponents in front of Taipei Railway Station who were collecting signatures for referendum proposals to keep nuclear power.
More than 5.8 million people who voted on a referendum last year expressed hope that nuclear power would be kept and that the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) would be completed, he said.
Tsai’s administration refuses to comply with the vote, choosing instead to adhere to its “nuclear power-free homeland by 2025” policy, Hau said, adding that they would continue campaigning to keep nuclear power generation facilities.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods