New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, supports reactivating or extending the use of Taiwan’s three completed nuclear power plants and using the unfinished fourth plant pending a safety evaluation, a spokesperson for his campaign told a news conference on Thursday.
KMT spokesperson Yang Chih-yu said that despite the government’s repeated denials, Taiwanese understand that the country faces an energy crisis.
The issue is severe enough that in its white paper this year, the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan warned that Taiwan was “far behind schedule” in its plans to phase out nuclear power and replace it with renewable energy, Yang said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Lee Li-chen (李利貞), a spokesperson for Hou’s campaign, said that Hou has proposed easing this situation by keeping nuclear power in the energy mix while pursuing a broader energy policy based on the principles of safety, stability and carbon reduction.
Specifically, Hou would reactivate the nuclear power plants in New Taipei City’s Shihmen (石門) and Guosheng (萬里) districts pending safety inspections, and grant them 20-year operating permits, she said.
Hou also supports extending the life of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, which has two reactors set to be shut down, one next year and the other in 2025, Lee said.
As for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, the construction of which was frozen in 2014 when it was near completion, Hou would bring it into operation, provided it passed a safety inspection by a team of international experts, Lee said.
If enacted, Hou’s proposals would mark a sharp break with the policies of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which, since taking office in 2016, has prioritized phasing out nuclear power by 2025.
The government initially expected to achieve an energy mix of 50 percent natural gas, 30 percent coal and 20 percent renewable energy by 2025, but fell behind schedule on renewable energy development, and has also run into setbacks in building its natural gas capacity infrastructure.
Those delays have led to concerns that Taiwan could face energy shortfalls in 2025 and 2026, and a lack of low-carbon energy in the second half of the decade.
Despite this, DPP officials, including the party’s presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), have said that the 2025 target can still be met without risking energy shortages.
Last year, 82.42 percent of the energy generated in Taiwan came from fossil fuels (mainly coal and liquified natural gas), while 8.28 percent came from renewables, 8.24 percent from nuclear power and 1.06 percent from pumped storage hydropower, Bureau of Energy data showed.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
The age requirement for commercial pilots and airline transport pilots is to be lowered by two years, to 18 and 21 years respectively, to expand the pool of pilots in accordance with international standards, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced today. The changes are part of amendments to articles 93, 119 and 121 of the Regulations Governing Licenses and Ratings for Airmen (航空人員檢定給證管理規則). The amendments take into account age requirements for aviation personnel certification in the Convention on International Civil Aviation and EU’s aviation safety regulations, as well as the practical needs of managing aviation personnel licensing, the ministry said. The ministry
RSS