Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) presidential advisory team yesterday said that, if elected president, Han would aim to have at least half of the nation’s energy generated from renewable sources by 2035.
His administration would work on developing alternative energy sources while continuing to use nuclear power, including possibly activating the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), Han said during a livestream of the event on Facebook at the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Kaohsiung chapter.
“I fully support activating the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant on the condition that its safety can be ensured and that the public agrees,” he said.
Photo: CNA
To show his commitment, he signed a referendum initiated by Nuclear Myth Busters founder Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修) proposing the activation of the mothballed plant.
While nearly 6 million people voted in a referendum last year to abolish the legal basis of the “nuclear-free homeland by 2025” policy proposed by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, the government still insists on phasing out nuclear power, Han said.
If elected president next year, he vowed to carry out the referendum result and formulate a new energy policy that ensures safe and stable power supply and prices.
Photo: CNA
With Han as president, at least half of the nation’s electricity would be generated from renewable sources by 2035, advisory team convener and former premier Simon Chan (張善政) said, adding that 15 years should be enough for local energy sectors to develop mature technologies to meet the goal.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) on Wednesday dismissed Han’s proposal of reactivating the plant as a “non-issue,” saying that the plant’s fuel rods are already being transported to the US.
However, Chang said that the remaining fuel rods in Taiwan would be enough to power the plant’s No. 1 reactor.
“The fuel rods that are already abroad could also be sent back, because they will most likely not be sold by then due to their specific model type,” he added.
Existing and future radioactive waste could be shipped to France for reprocessing, Chang said.
“Radioactive waste is not unmanageable. It is just that the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] refuses to deal with it,” he said.
Earlier yesterday, Hou reiterated his concerns about activating the plant.
Before the KMT stopped the plant’s construction, the DPP had first suspended it and then resumed construction, he said at a fire department event in the city.
The flip-flopping in energy policy has been a waste of taxpayers’ money and has not been supplemented with any plan to ensure environmental sustainability, he added.
Activating the plant would be “a fake issue” until officials can explain how the plant can operate while ensuring safe nuclear power, he said.
Additional reporting by Lai Hsiao-tung and Wu Ren-jie
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS