The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was shut down on the evening of Saturday last week. It took less than two days before baseless and malicious rumors began to spread, misleading the public into mistakenly equating the decommissioning of nuclear power with air pollution and even claiming that Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) electricity would become “dirty.”
Allow me to compare the proportion of nuclear-generated electricity since 2016 with air pollution and carbon emission coefficients resulting from power generation. Let the numbers speak for themselves.
The gradual decommissioning of Taiwan’s nuclear reactors caused the share of nuclear energy in Taipower’s total electricity generation and purchases to drop from 13.49 percent in 2016 to 6.99 percent in 2023, further dropping to 4.66 percent last year. Air pollutant emissions from Taipower’s plants simultaneously decreased from 107,000 tonnes in 2016 to 37,000 tonnes in 2023 — a 65 percent reduction. The carbon emission coefficient for electricity also dropped from 0.53kg of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2016 to 0.494kg carbon dioxide per kWh in 2023.
From the data, it is evident that neither air pollution nor carbon emissions from power generation increased during this period, despite the decreased proportion of nuclear energy.
Relying on nuclear energy is not the answer to reducing the amount of air pollution caused by power generation — the solution to this issue lies in advancing air pollution control technology.
The reality is that air quality is affected by several factors, such as pollution sources, terrain and atmospheric conditions. Hastily attributing air pollution to thermal power generation alone is a myth that does nothing to solve the problem at hand, and distorting thermal power as being “dirty electricity” while overlooking the difficult issue of nuclear waste management is not helpful to Taiwan’s sustainable development.
Shieh Jyh-cherng is a retired National Taiwan University professor.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop at nothing to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, going as far as to create complete falsehoods. That the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan is an objective fact. To refute this, Beijing has tried to assert “jurisdiction” over Taiwan, pointing to its military exercises around the nation as “proof.” That is an outright lie: If the PRC had jurisdiction over Taiwan, it could simply have issued decrees. Instead, it needs to perform a show of force around the nation to demonstrate its fantasy. Its actions prove the exact opposite of its assertions. A
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
RSS