An environmental group said yesterday that it would initiate a second referendum aimed at curbing the nation’s use of nuclear power following the rejection of its previous proposal by the Cabinet.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) chairman Liu Chun-hsiu (劉俊秀) said that if allowed by the government’s Referendum Review Committee, the next referendum would ask the question: “Do you support Taiwan Power Company’s [Taipower] plan to extend the service life of the first nuclear power plant?”
The Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shimen District (石門) is set to have its two reactors decommissioned in 2018 and 2019.
In July, the group proposed a referendum on the nation’s newest plant, still under construction, which asked: “Do you support the installation of fuel rods in the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City?”
That initiative, however, was rejected by the Referendum Review Committee in August on the grounds that the rationale contradicted the stated purpose of the referendum.
The TEPU filed an administrative lawsuit against the committee on Sept. 14 in an attempt to overturn the decision.
A member of the anti-nuclear power group who initiated the first referendum, Kao Cheng-yen (高成炎) yesterday said the fact that a referendum plan endorsed by 120,000 people can be rejected by a 13-member committee highlights the absurdity of the referendum system.
Kao likened the situation to that of Hong Kong, where the rules of the special administrative region’s election for its chief executive are set by Beijing.
In April, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration decided to halt construction of the nearly completed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮) with immediate effect amid mounting public sentiment against nuclear power.
The government also decided that the plant being put into operation in the future would be determined by a national referendum.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
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