The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) yesterday pledged to cover all medical expenses incurred during the hospitalization of You Kato, as associate professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University’s Division of Radiological Science, who was in a car accident on Sunday after the conclusion of a radioactivity inspection of Lanyu (蘭嶼), also known as Orchid Island.
“According to the hospital where professor Kato is being treated, the surgery went smoothly and he is making a good recovery and could be discharged within a week. Medical expenses are estimated to be more than NT$100,000,” Fuel Cycle and Materials Administration deputy director Shao Yao-tsu (邵耀祖) said yesterday.
Kato and another Japanese academic, J.F. Oberlin University professor Katsumi Nakao, visited Taiwan at the invitation of the council to join five Taiwanese nuclear specialists and personnel from the council-affiliated Radiation Monitoring Center to conduct a two-day survey of the island’s radiation levels on Saturday and Sunday.
Kato and Nakao made the trip following a three-day radioactive survey they carried out on the island, which is home to the nation’s only nuclear waste storage facility, at the invitation of environmentalists from Taitung County in early September, after the island was severely battered by Typhoon Tembin.
The academics were scheduled to first carry out an on-the-spot survey on Saturday, before presenting their findings at Langdao Elementary School on Sunday to Lanyu residents who have become increasingly unhappy about possible radioactive pollution on the island.
Shao said after the academics explained their findings to Lanyu residents as planned on Sunday morning, they headed to the Lanyu Airport for a flight to Taitung, where they were due to attend a press conference.
“Unfortunately, professor Kato got into an accident on his way to the airport, but was rushed to the Mackay Memorial Hospital’s Taitung Branch for emergency treatment,” Shao said.
In response to criticism of the council for being indifferent to Kato’s injuries, Shao said the council immediately requested Taiwan Power Co Taitung division chief Chiu Ching-hui (邱慶輝) to visit Kato at the hospital upon learning about the crash.
“The council also offered NT$6,000 in consolation money to professor Kato and pledged to cover all medical expenses,” Shao said.
Turning to the radioactivity inspection, Shao said a high-precision high purity germanium detector was employed during the two-day survey of the island and that radiation levels on the island were found to be normal.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday lauded the council’s move to solicit funds for Kato’s medical bills, adding he wished Kato a speedy recovery.
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
TWO RISKIEST SPOTS: People living in Taitung County received 20 earthquake alerts over the past 12 months, while Hualien County placed second with 17 alerts Taitung County residents received national earthquake alerts on their mobile phones more frequently over the past year than people in other parts of Taiwan, Central Weather Bureau data showed. Between Nov. 20 last year and Nov. 20, Taitung residents topped other administrative regions with 20 earthquake alerts. They were followed by Hualien County residents who received 17 alerts and Chiayi County residents who received 11, the bureau said. Residents in Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties did not receive a single earthquake alert, it said. The bureau shared the data on Facebook for the first time since the government connected the earthquake warning
RSS