Campaigners against nuclear energy yesterday filed a lawsuit against Premier Lin Chuan (林全) over his idea of reactivating Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 1 reactor amid safety fears over the aging reactor.
Lin was accused of endangering public safety with his remarks on Sunday that he might permit the restart of the reactor at the plant in New Taipei City’s Shimen District (石門), which has been shut for nearly 18 months, to ease the nation’s power shortages.
It is the second lawsuit against officials who have suggested restart the reactor; Minister of Economic Affairs Lee Chih-kung (李世光) and Atomic Energy Council Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星) were sued on Monday last week.
Photo: CNA
Veteran campaigner Lin Jui-chu (林瑞珠) said that the reactor is the most dangerous nuclear facility in the world because there are used fuel rods that are unable to be retrieved from the reactor, and there is no precedent for reusing spent fuel rods.
Campaigners say that power shortages are not enough of a reason to restart the reactor.
“There is no power shortage in Taiwan. Taiwan Power Co’s [Taipower] total generation capacity is 48,000 megawatts, but the nation consumes 35,000 megawatts. That means about 28 percent of the capacity has not been tapped, because Taipower either allows power plants to undergo maintenance or run at lower capacity,” Mom Loves Taiwan secretary-general Yang Shun-mei (楊順美) said.
“How can we allow that 28 percent capacity to remain unused, Yang said.
Lin’s move is abusing the Executive Yuan’s authority and reneging on the party’s promise of going nuclear-free by 2025, Green Consumers’ Foundation chairman Jay Fang (方儉) said.
Taipower has denied allegations that it does not fully utilize its facilities, saying it was operating at a margin of 1.64 percent on Tuesday last week — the lowest operating margin in 10 years.
Excluding the 7,000 megawatt generation capacity of the private sector over which the company has no control, Taipower has only a capacity of 41,000 megawatts, but that does not equal to actual power generation capacity, which is restricted by environmental protection issues, maintenance and weather.
“Accusations that Taipower creates an impression of power shortage risk are not true,” the company said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
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