The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday urged the public to remain patient while waiting for the outcome of its ongoing security checks at the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮).
The ministry’s call came after it was criticized on Wednesday by Lin Tsung-yao (林宗堯), a former engineer at General Electric Co who now serves as a consultant overseeing Taipower’s construction process at the plant for the government.
Safety standards
In his statement, titled “The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant hardly meets safety standards,” Lin criticized the ministry for incompetence in solving problems surrounding the plant, because it only reports Taipower’s official reports to the Executive Yuan, but lacks the ability to understand and solve any problem uncovered.
AEC incapable
In addition, Lin said that the Executive Yuan’s Atomic Energy Council (AEC) is incapable of comprehensively supervising construction of the nuclear power plant, adding that the construction cannot finish as scheduled and that there is no guarantee for the power plant’s safety and quality.
“The nuclear power plant can only be decommissioned if it cannot pass trial tests,” the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times sister newspaper) quoted Lin as saying in a report.
In a statement posted on its Web site, the ministry said it would review the security checks it has conducted. It said it would also take into account professional analyses by Robert Tsai (蔡維綱), a former employee at US-based electricity and natural gas supplier Exelon Corp, when making improvements.
“The government will fulfill its duty, ensuring that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant will not be allowed to function unless security checks prove its safety,” the ministry said.
“Even if a referendum accepts Taipower’s proposal to continue construction of the nuclear power plant, the ministry will never approve Taipower’s application to put in fuel rods to operate the power plant if it fails to pass security checks,” it added.
Supervisor role
In response to Lin’s criticism that the Executive Yuan incorrectly holds the ministry responsible for the budget and construction supervision of the nuclear power plant while assigning the AEC to secure its safety, the ministry said that the AEC acts as a supervisor to approve Taipower’s construction work in different phases, or to not approve the work.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in