Nuclear experts yesterday said that the nation’s presidential candidates are misinformed if they believe that nuclear-free development is the best path for Taiwan’s energy sector, with Atomic Energy Council Minister Tsai Chuen-horng (蔡春鴻) saying that most anti-nuclear narratives are anti-science.
At an annual convention of the Chung Hwa Nuclear Society, Tsai said that nuclear energy has long been misunderstood and public sentiment has forced the government to implement anti-nuclear measures, such as sealing up the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City, leaving the plant’s activation or termination to a referendum and postponing the designation of a nuclear waste repository.
“We are engaging in a debate between science and anti-science, which is also a fight between science and populism. We should keep on fighting for the next generations and Taiwan’s future,” Tsai said.
Association chairman Pan Chin (潘欽) urged the presidential candidates to include nuclear development in their national energy policies, because giving up nuclear power risks the stability of the nation’s power supply.
About 98 percent of Taiwan’s energy is sourced from abroad, making energy self-sufficiency a critical issue, Pan said, adding that nuclear power could strengthen the nation’s energy security as the supply and price of nuclear fuel are stable.
“Power shortage is a major uncertainty that would prevent businesses from investing in Taiwan, and presidential candidates should ease investors’ fear by proposing a viable energy policy,” he said.
Taiwan Power Co vice president Chai Fu-feng (蔡富豐) said the nation should face the issue of nuclear waste management, and while there is no technical difficulty in building a safe nuclear waste repository, delaying the construction of a facility would only incur generational injustice by leaving the problem to later generations.
Citizen of the Earth office director Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) said the council’s preference for nuclear energy would jeopardize an unbiased management of nuclear facilities and the possibility of a balanced scientific discussion.
Anti-nuclear groups have based their narratives on scientific research, while Tsai Chuen-horng’s snub to those narratives was a true example of anti-science, he said.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
TASK FORCE DISPATCHED: MOFA said it would assist state employees with repatriation or relocation to other ally nations in the region after Tegucigalpa severed ties The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday ordered Honduras to vacate its embassy in Taiwan within 30 days of Sunday after Tegucigalpa made a similar demand of Taiwan. Taipei on Monday announced that it had cut ties with Honduras after the Central American nation earlier said in a statement that it had established ties with Beijing and ended its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Following the announcements, Honduran Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Garcia spoke on Honduran television saying that Taiwan would be required to vacate its embassy in the Honduran capital. In Taipei, MOFA later told a news conference that “according
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