The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) yesterday denied allegations that Sioulin Township (秀林), Hualien County, had been selected as a location for nuclear waste storage.
The denial came after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at a press conference that Taipower had been drilling holes in the eastern township in preparation for the work.
The company began the deep-hole drilling work in October for a nuclear waste storage facility located 500m underground, Hsiao said. The crew had drilled to a depth of 200m as of the end of last month, he added, citing information provided by local residents.
Photo: Fang Pin-Chao, Taipei Times
The storage plan was part of the council’s “Spent Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Program Plan,” she said.
The DPP maintains a “nuclear-free homeland” policy and condemns the inappropriate action, Hsiao said, adding that the drilling had created fear among Hualien residents and local Taroko Aborigines.
Hsiao said Taipower should move the planned facility out of the county and release all information pertaining to its nuclear waste storage operations.
Environmental group Citizen of the Earth said in a press release that the reported plan could violate the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法), which requires the government to obtain consent from Aborigines before carrying out major developments on their territory.
It is also against social justice and the principle of proportionality to store nuclear waste in low electricity consuming areas such as eastern Taiwan or the islands off its coast, the group said.
Taipower and the council denied such efforts were underway.
Taipower’s plans and nuclear waste disposal operations would have to be approved by the council and made public, said Lee Ching-shan (李清山), director of Taipower’s nuclear back-end management department.
The drilling was a part of a nationwide granite texture inspection program and was unrelated to the selection of a site for spent nuclear fuel disposal, he said.
Taipower will not make any unilateral decision on the site before the council submits a draft bill for the selection of the disposal site, Lee said.
Liu Wen-chung (劉文忠), an official from the council, said that no selection would be made for 20 years as the council and Taipower were scheduled to conduct technological research between 2005 and 2017.
“I guarantee that Taipower has no intention to make Hualien the disposal site of the spent nuclear fuel,” Liu said.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS