A national referendum on activating the long-mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) is set for Aug. 28, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Friday.
The Referendum Act (公民投票法) stipulates that national referendums can only be held once every two years, starting from this year, and only on the fourth Saturday of August.
Polling stations would open from 8am to 4pm, the commission said.
The agency is to announce the referendums on May 27, hold presentations on the referendum questions from May 28 to Aug. 27 and announce the number of voters eligible for the referendums by Aug. 24, it said.
The result of the referendums would be announced on Sept. 3, although unofficial results should be known the night of the vote, it said.
So far, only the nuclear power plant referendum initiative, launched by nuclear power proponent Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), has met the endorsement threshold required to be put to a vote.
It asks: “Do you agree that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be activated for commercial operations?”
The plant, which was close to completion before being shelved in 2014, has been a focal point in debates over nuclear power.
Supporters have lauded it as a clean and relatively cheap energy solution to the problems of air quality and rising electricity costs.
Critics warn of the safety hazards of using the plant in particular and nuclear power in general, citing the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan.
Several initiatives remain in the works, including one to eliminate the restriction that referendums can only be held on the fourth Saturday of August in odd-numbered years.
For a referendum to pass, at least 25 percent of eligible voters must cast their ballot for it, setting a relatively high turnout threshold in a nonelection year, and it must also garner more votes in favor than opposed.
Initiating a referendum in Taiwan requires meeting endorsements in two phases — the first round requires signatures from at least 0.01 percent of eligible voters in the most recent presidential election, while the second round requires signatures from 1.5 percent of eligible voters.
There were 19.31 million eligible voters in last year’s presidential election.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
RSS