President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions.
Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei.
‘NO’
Photo courtesy of the Democratic Progressive Party
“I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant next to Ma-anshan (馬鞍山) in Pingtung County.
Lai said his administration’s consistent stance is to permit the use of nuclear energy if three practical requirements and two procedural ones have been met.
The practical requirements are: assurance in the safety of nuclear power, securing a nuclear waste disposal site and achieving consensus on the matter, he said.
The procedural requirements are for the Nuclear Safety Commission and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to go through the proper legal process for the government to consider a return to nuclear energy, he said.
The commission has designed a certification process for deactivating nuclear reactors, but the proposal is in the public comment period until the end of next month, Lai said.
EVALUATION NEEDED
Taipower must independently certify the reactors’ safety and determine that there is a need for nuclear power and the capability to sustain it, he said.
Taipower chairman Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) had previously said that the state-owned company would start necessary evaluations as soon as the commission promulgated regulations governing that process, Lai said.
Since neither the commission nor Taipower have begun conducting safety assessments, Taiwanese do not have the necessary information to evaluate the nuclear energy issue, he said.
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