The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) proposal to amend the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Control Act (核子反應器設施管制法) to require that a local referendum be held for residents living in the 50km “escape zone” around a nuclear power facility was “inappropriate.”
“Before fuel rods are placed in a nuclear power plant’s reactors, there should be a local referendum for people to decide whether they want such power plants to operate,” DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said, adding that she had doubts about the safety of the unfinished Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which has had more than 1,500 alterations made to its design so far.
As the legislature’s education committee reviewed DPP Legislator Chen Chieh-ju’s (陳節如) proposal yesterday, AEC Minister Tsai Chuen-horng (蔡春鴻) said nuclear policy should be treated as a national issue and should not be brought down to a local level.
“Other countries with nuclear power plants do not have such regulations in place and the countries which have held such referendums did not use this type of functional law as a legal basis for them,” Tsai said.
Responding to lawmakers’ questions about why current regulations require that a local referendum be held prior to the establishment of low-level radioactive waste disposal sites, but not for nuclear power plants, Tsai said a plant is a public facility for providing electricity that affects the general public, compared with a disposal site, which is a passive facility that mainly affects the surrounding area.
KMT Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) said the Constitution stipulates that national energy policies be devised by the central government, so holding a local referendum to decide whether a nuclear power plant is made operational may be a constitutional violation.
During the review process, Tsai told legislators that he “could not predict whether the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant would be safe in the future, but that it currently has many flaws and problems that need to be improved,” adding that the plant was “poorly conceived and a very difficult project.”
When asked whether the plan to remove radioactive waste from Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) by 2016 would be successful, Tsai said it would be difficult for Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to meet that target.
Taipower chairman Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) said “it is hardly possible” and that the new goal is to remove the nuclear waste by 2021, Tsai said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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