A company purchases three trucks — A, B and C — to transport its goods, driven by three drivers — Andy, Bob and Greta. After 20 years, with their parts aged and failure frequency sharply increased, all three trucks have reached the end of their useful lives.
One day, Andy and Bob say to Greta: “All three of our trucks have been on the highway every day. If one breaks down and an accident occurs on the way, the consequences would be disastrous. So, starting tomorrow, trucks A and B will be scrapped first, but your truck will remain in service.”
Earlier this month, amendments to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) were passed with the support of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), and opposition from the Democratic Progressive Party.
The amendments relax the validity period of nuclear power plant operating licenses, allowing nuclear power plants to apply for a license renewal after the license expires.
They also allow the plants to extend their service life by another 20 years.
Immediately afterward, the TPP proposed a referendum, which is set to be held on Aug. 23, to restart the service of the No. 2 reactor, only decommissioned on May 17, of Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春). This was done to navigate a potential reversal of the government’s anti-nuclear policy.
As a native of Pingtung County, where the Ma-anshan plant is located, I have something to say about this.
First, the decommissioning dates for Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants — New Taipei City’s Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shimen District (石門) and Guoshan Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District (萬里), and the plant in Pingtung — were in 2019, 2023 and this year respectively. They are all old nuclear power plants with old facilities.
Now that KMT and TPP legislators advocate extending the service life of nuclear power plants, why did they not propose a referendum that would apply to all three plants, not just the Ma-anshan plant?
Second, from July 1985 until March, the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, which was built on the active Hengchun fault, had about 10 abnormal incidents (including power outages, fire accidents and equipment abnormalities).
For 40 years, Pingtung County residents have been living with nuclear safety risks. Have KMT and TPP legislators ever respected their feelings? Why would the Ma-anshan plant not be decommissioned as scheduled? Is extending the service life of the plant safer than extending that of the other two?
Third, TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) used to be the representative of the “anti-nuclear camp” during the 2018 referendum on nuclear power.
He fiercely criticized the pro-nuclear camp for ignoring the complexity of nuclear safety and nuclear waste disposal.
Is it now for electoral gain or other political calculations that he has made such a U-turn?
Huang completely ignores his conscience and the consequences of extending the service life of the Ma-anshan plant, which was a slap in the face of his previously anti-nuclear self.
Such brutal behavior completely disregarded the safety of Pingtung people and was tantamount to bullying the county.
How could Pingtung residents not be angry with what has happened here?
Yeh Yu-cheng is a secretary at the Pingtung County Public Health Bureau.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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