Participants attending a public hearing yesterday on nuclear safety and emergency response measures remained concerned as they expressed doubts about the government’s contingency plans in the event of a crisis.
Saying that the ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima, Japan, is an important turning point in the nuclear policies of many countries, former Environmental Protection Administration minister Lin Jun-yi (林俊義) said Germany has begun to re-evaluate its nuclear energy policy, while Taiwan’s government wants to continue developing nuclear power.
“The safety of 23 million -Taiwanese should not be decided by technological bureaucracy,” Lin said at the hearing hosted by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), environmental groups and government agencies.
As all man-made constructions have their own risks and cannot be absolutely safe, the government shouldn’t keep promising that they are safe, he said.
According to the Atomic Energy Council, the council has asked state-owned Taiwan Power Co (-Taipower) to re-evaluate the possible effects an earthquake would have on the nation’s three operating nuclear power plants. The council has also demanded that Taipower upgrade the seismic design -guidelines of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant from 0.3g to 0.4g, to improve its resistance to earthquakes.
Shih Shin-min (施信民), a professor of chemical engineering at National Taiwan University, asked whether the government had a practical emergency response protocol at hand, and whether a 5km radius evacuation area was enough.
“If there aren’t practical and effective plans, then the power plants should be retired,” he said.
In response, a Taipower official said the company is only in charge of the operation of the nuclear plants and executing the energy policies of the superior ministry, and therefore could not decide whether nuclear power should be scrapped.
GREATER NUMBER: The sorties might have been a response to the US and the EU expressing concern on Friday over China’s ‘provocations’ in the Taiwan Strait Twenty-five Chinese military aircraft and four naval ships were detected around Taiwan from 6am Saturday to 6am yesterday, including eight airplanes that had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and another two that entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ were a Y-8 anti-submarine plane and a BZK-005 uncrewed aerial vehicle, the Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft that flew across the median line include two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets, four J-16 multipurpose fighters and two J-10 jets, the ministry’s official Web site showed. Taiwan’s armed forces monitored the
The building of a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) plant in Phoenix, Arizona, is expected to lead to the creation of a “Little Taipei” over the coming year, as TSMC employees and related companies move in, a Phoenix-based real-estate agent has said. TSMC is investing US$12 billion to build a wafer plant in northern Phoenix that is scheduled to begin mass production in 2024. The company on Tuesday held a “tool-in” ceremony to mark the installation of the first batch of equipment at the fab. Some TSMC employees have moved into newly constructed apartments in a community 10 minutes’ drive from the
LUNAR NEW YEAR PEAK: Taiwanese who are in China should get vaccinated and consider returning early, as infection rates are expected to increase, the CECC said China faces five major problems once COVID-19 begins spreading there, with a peak in infections likely during the Lunar New Year holidays, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), said yesterday. Wang wrote on Facebook that according to the center’s data, the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in China is worth noting, as the new Omicron subvariants BF.7 and BA.5.2 spreading in China are highly infectious and are more transmissible than the previously dominating Omicron subvariants. “The virus cannot be eliminated even under China’s strict control measures,” he wrote. “Its policy
The US Navy could use experimental “lightning carriers” in a possible conflict with China over Taiwan, Business Insider reported on Wednesday. The lightning carrier concept involves using converted amphibious assault ships (LHAs) carrying Lockheed Martin F-35B “Lightning II” stealth jets. It was tested last summer by the US Navy and US Marines Corps using the America-class warship USS Tripoli. US Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, the commander of the US Navy 7th Fleet, in October said that the concept is part of efforts to increase the firepower of the fleet’s ships, Business Insider reported. Thomas made the remarks during an event hosted by think
RSS