The Legislative Yuan yesterday abolished a provision in Article 95 of the Electricity Act (電業法) stipulating that all nuclear energy generation facilities must stop operations before 2025.
The amendment was passed in compliance with the result of last year’s Referendum No. 16, which asked: “Do you agree that subparagraph 1, Article 95 of the Electricity City, which reads: ‘Nuclear-energy-based power-generating facilities shall wholly stop running by 2025,’ should be abolished?”
The referendum passed with 5.89 million “yes” votes and 4.01 million “no” votes.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The article now states that the government should set plans to move forward work on the final disposition of low-level nuclear waste, so as to deal with the low-level waste currently stored on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼).
The National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform said that the result of the referendum does not mean the public is not concerned about nuclear power and the global trend toward renewable energy shows that using nuclear energy is by no means the right path.
The referendum does not affect the government’s goal of achieving a nuclear-power free homeland, the group said in a statement.
Citing opposition by local governments and the problem of nuclear waste disposal, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) in January said that Taiwan would not extend the service life of its nuclear power plants.
He added that it would not finish the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, whose completion was blocked by popular opposition in 2014 and then mothballed.
Among Taiwan’s three active nuclear power plants, the first two are expected to be decommissioned by March 2023 and the third by May 2025.
Nuclear power supporters have argued that Taiwan should complete the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant or extend the service life of existing ones to safeguard against power shortages.
On March 19, they drafted a proposal for a new referendum question that would ask voters if they agree with completing the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project and putting it into operation.
The proposal passed an initial screening and is awaiting verification of signatures by household registration offices.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
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A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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