On Feb. 14, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. The fact that the Fukushima Dai-ichi and Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear power plants have been decommissioned, and the Onagawa, Tokai Dai-ni, Higashidori and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plants are not operational might have prevented a nuclear accident.
Following the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan’s nuclear reactors were shut down in stages for safety checks. In June 2012, Japan for a while ran on zero nuclear power, which it did again for 11 months from September 2013.
As of Feb. 8, 24 of Japan’s reactors have been decommissioned, while nine have not applied to be reactivated. Permission has been granted for the configurations of seven reactors to be modified, while 11 others are under review, based on new regulatory requirements. Only nine reactors have been reactivated, of which just four are operating.
Nuclear power’s contribution to Japan’s power generation fell from 25 percent in 2010 to 6 percent in 2018, while renewable energy grew from 9 to 17 percent. Denuclearization seems to encourage the development of green energy.
The epicenter and depth of the Feb. 14 earthquake were close to those of the 2011 earthquake. Both quakes were caused by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the North American Plate.
The Feb. 14 earthquake is considered to be an aftershock of the 2011 quake. That there can still be aftershocks 10 years later in a region where a powerful earthquake triggered a nuclear disaster demonstrates the importance of carefully locating nuclear power plants.
A statement that accompanied the referendum on the Longmen (龍門) Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) said that no active faults had been discovered in the geological zone of the plant and that the nearest active fault is 35km away.
However, geological records for the seabed near the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant — provided by the Central Geological Survey at a seminar on Sept. 2, 2019 — showed that faults F4, F5, F6, F7 and F8 were probably active, and that fault F2 might become active. The records also showed that faults F4, F7 and F8 could join into a single fault and that fault F2 could be joined with them.
A Control Yuan investigative report concluded that before the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was built, two low-velocity zones had been found between its two reactors, and that multiple discontinuous shear results or disturbance zones had been found within the plant.
Denser shear zones where discovered as the plant was being built. When the foundations were being dug, these features were filled with concrete, strongly suggesting that attempts were being made to cover up the problem and prevent it from being examined.
Following the Fukushima disaster, the Legislative Yuan demanded that the area around the plant be given a thorough “health check.” The results of this investigation showed that there is an active normal fault about 90km long in the sea off the plant’s site, which has serious implications for its safety. Oddly, this was not followed by any in-depth investigation and discussion.
The passage of time might dilute people’s memory of a nuclear disaster, but geological structures do not forget where an earthquake took place. Given that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant lies on a fault zone, Taiwanese must not forget the lessons of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Tsai Ya-ying is a lawyer affiliated with the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association.
Translated by Julian Clegg
The government and local industries breathed a sigh of relief after Shin Kong Life Insurance Co last week said it would relinquish surface rights for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) to Nvidia Corp. The US chip-design giant’s plan to expand its local presence will be crucial for Taiwan to safeguard its core role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem and to advance the nation’s AI development. The land in dispute is owned by the Taipei City Government, which in 2021 sold the rights to develop and use the two plots of land, codenamed T17 and T18, to the
Art and cultural events are key for a city’s cultivation of soft power and international image, and how politicians engage with them often defines their success. Representative to Austria Liu Suan-yung’s (劉玄詠) conducting performance and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen’s (盧秀燕) show of drumming and the Tainan Jazz Festival demonstrate different outcomes when politics meet culture. While a thoughtful and professional engagement can heighten an event’s status and cultural value, indulging in political theater runs the risk of undermining trust and its reception. During a National Day reception celebration in Austria on Oct. 8, Liu, who was formerly director of the
US President Donald Trump has announced his eagerness to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un while in South Korea for the APEC summit. That implies a possible revival of US-North Korea talks, frozen since 2019. While some would dismiss such a move as appeasement, renewed US engagement with North Korea could benefit Taiwan’s security interests. The long-standing stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang has allowed Beijing to entrench its dominance in the region, creating a myth that only China can “manage” Kim’s rogue nation. That dynamic has allowed Beijing to present itself as an indispensable power broker: extracting concessions from Washington, Seoul
Taiwan’s labor force participation rate among people aged 65 or older was only 9.9 percent for 2023 — far lower than in other advanced countries, Ministry of Labor data showed. The rate is 38.3 percent in South Korea, 25.7 percent in Japan and 31.5 percent in Singapore. On the surface, it might look good that more older adults in Taiwan can retire, but in reality, it reflects policies that make it difficult for elderly people to participate in the labor market. Most workplaces lack age-friendly environments, and few offer retraining programs or flexible job arrangements for employees older than 55. As
RSS