A team of Taiwanese experts is to depart for Japan tomorrow to inspect wastewater from the disabled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, with a report on its findings expected in a month.
Experts are visiting to evaluate plans announced by Tokyo last year to gradually discharge more than 1.25 million cubic meters of treated water from the plant into the sea starting in the spring of next year at the earliest.
It follows another visit last month by a delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that gathered information about the plan and collected wastewater samples from the plant that was damaged after a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Photo: AP
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators have questioned the impartiality of the Atomic Energy Council (AEC), accusing it of helping Tokyo “whitewash” the situation in an explainer on its Web site.
AEC Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星) before a routine hearing at the Legislative Yuan yesterday told reporters that the council submitted a formal objection to Tokyo as soon as it announced the plan in April last year.
Later at the hearing, legislators called on Hsieh to establish preliminary response measures to the potential effects of wastewater contamination and to publicly report on its progress.
Not even the IAEA made preliminary judgements before its inspection of the plant, and any discharge would have to meet internationally agreed standards, Hsieh said, adding that this was why the IAEA and Taiwan are sending inspectors.
As for its potential effect on the fishing industry, Hsieh deferred to the Fisheries Agency, but added that the AEC has plans to set up a platform for agencies to inform each other of preventive measures.
Questioned about the AEC’s out-of-date online explainer, which still says that an IAEA delegation “is to” visit Japan, Hsieh said that the international agency is not releasing the results of its investigation until next month.
The AEC maintained communications with the IAEA delegation during its visit, but it cannot share that information until the agency releases its report, Hsieh said.
After legislators expressed concern about how the Taiwanese delegation would be treated, Hsieh said that the AEC’s team would request that it receive the same treatment as the IAEA delegation.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
RSS