More than 523 academics have signed a statement urging the public to vote “no” in Saturday’s referendum to restart the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant.
A tectonic fault line in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township is 900m from the reactors at the facility and a protrusion from an earthquake could spell disaster, Chen Wen-shan (陳文山), a professor in National Taiwan University’s Department of Geology, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday, citing 2015 and 2022 reports by Taiwan Power Co.
The geological layer on which the power plant rests is relatively young and a large earthquake might occur there, Chen said.
Photo: Hunag Yi-ching, Taipei Times
Storing spent fuel rods underground was possible in theory, but no site survey has been conducted, he said, adding that with daily compression of the Earth’s crust in Taiwan, fuel rods might become stuck and irretrievable.
Tsuang Ben-jei (莊秉潔), professor of environmental engineering at National Chung Hsing University, said that if something similar to what befell the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan in 2011 happened at the Ma-anshan site, Taitung County, Kaohsiung, Pingtung County and Hengchun Township (恆春) would have a 5 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent and 70 percent chance respectively of becoming permanent exclusion zones.
Moreover, the Kuroshio current flows off Hengchun, so fisheries near Taiwan would be affected, Tsuang said.
Tai Hsing-sheng (戴興盛), a professor of natural resources and environmental studies at National Dong Hwa University, said that nuclear power does not meet the EU’s standards for financial sustainability.
A levelized cost of electricity assessment shows that nuclear power has a far higher average cost of generating electricity over the lifespan of a facility than power from renewable sources, Tai said.
The overheads of nuclear waste processing, as well as the social and economic effects of nuclear disasters, have not been factored into calculations, Tai added.
Chiu Hua-mei (邱花妹), an assistant professor of sociology at National Sun Yat-sen University, said that Pingtung County residents coexisted with the risk of a nuclear disaster for four decades.
However, most of them are unaware that the facility faced abnormalities or circumvented regulations 30 times, Chiu said.
County residents should not be forced to live with nuclear power any longer and to do so would be enacting regional injustice, she said.
On Monday, a source in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who asked not to be named, said that DPP politicians and local officials would increase campaigning to urge “no” votes in the referendum.
“We must directly confront the disinformation and false narratives being disseminated, and also remind the public that the opposition parties have changed their position on nuclear energy,” the source said.
Many leading figures in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party once opposed nuclear energy, but now they embrace it, they said.
“Their U-turn is beyond what a normal person would consider reasonable, which shows that the referendum is a mere political show,” they added.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun
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
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
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS