An environmental advocacy group yesterday urged people to vote “no” to two of the questions in Saturday’s referendums: restarting construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and relocating a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to protect algal reefs off Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音).
In a news release, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union said that proponents of the nuclear power plant have made numerous false claims, which the Executive Yuan failed to fully debunk in the Referendum Bulletin issued by the Central Election Commission to explain both sides of the referendum issues.
The Executive Yuan cited difficulties with nuclear waste disposal, incomplete operational tests of the plant, seismic safety issues and technical problems that would take more than seven years to overcome, among others, as reasons for the government’s opposition to the referendum.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The group said it should have gone further by saying that Taiwan shipped out the last of its fuel rods in March, the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant’s building license had expired last year, and one of the plant’s two planned nuclear reactors did not pass operational tests and remains incomplete.
Nuclear energy is not safe, with 16 people killed and 71 injured in accidents involving nuclear power since 1978, when the country activated its first nuclear power plant, the group said, adding that seven of the fatalities occurred on the grounds of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
Nuclear energy is not clean, as nuclear power plants create nuclear waste that would remain radioactive for hundreds or even thousands of years, it said.
A nuclear power plant that is operating normally still produces harmful radionuclides that are released into the air and water, it added.
Heated water discharged by nuclear power plants’ cooling systems has been linked to instances of coral bleaching, it said.
The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is built over several fault lines and the design is not safe enough to handle a powerful earthquake, it said.
Construction of the plant, which is overwhelmingly opposed by local residents, would negatively affect the future of Gongliao’s tourism and fishery industries, it added.
The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is prohibitively expensive and has already cost taxpayers NT$283.8 billion, the group said.
In another news release, the group said people should also oppose the proposal to relocate the proposed LNG terminal.
Public discourse about the project has become muddled by the numerous changes made over the years, the difficulty of a highly technical subject and the political rhetorics of the referendum’s proponents, it added.
The project, which involves erecting the breakwater 1.2km from the shore and utilizing an elevated pipeline, is technically viable and minimizes harm to the algal reefs, it said.
Conservation efforts should be geared toward preserving Datan algal reefs as a large, integrated habitat in the long term, instead of protecting a part of the whole for the immediate future, it said, adding that the government has done a good job so far.
The reefs should also be understood as possessing a certain level of resiliency and ability to regenerate, which has ensured their survival against disruptive environmental changes in the past, the group said.
The discussions should take into account the project’s environmental impact, the practicability of alternatives and economic effects, including the country’s issues with power supply, grid balancing and need to transform its energy structure, it said.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
RSS