Members of the Taiwan Go Go Front alliance yesterday called for suspension of plan to restart the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春).
The alliance, including the Green Party Taiwan (GPT), the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP), the New Power Party and the Taiwan Obasang Political Equality Party, issued the call after President William Lai (賴清德) on Saturday signaled he was open to restarting two decommissioned nuclear plants to meet an expected increase in energy demand driven by the artificial intelligence sector, as well as to comply with changes to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) last year, which provided a legislative basis for the continuation of nuclear power plant operations even after entering the decommissioning stage.
GPT convener and New Taipei City councilor candidate Kan Chung-wei (甘崇緯) yesterday said the amendment to the law simply establishes a legal basis for potentially restarting decommissioned nuclear power plants, it does not automatically allow their return to operation.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The move to initiate the process has come from the Executive Yuan under Lai’s direction, he said, urging the government to stop blurring the issue and misleading the public.
The two nuclear power plants are in geologically active areas and there are as many as 5 million people living within 30km of the Guosheng power plant, he said.
There has yet to be a regional evacuation plan and the final disposal sites for low-level and high-level nuclear waste remain unknown, he added.
“[We] strongly urge the president to instruct the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan Power Co to withdraw the restart plan and to revisit the issue only after the three principles have genuinely been met,” he said.
TSP Chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said energy policy shapes a society’s broader vision for environmental, social and economic sustainability and should be guided by science — not ideology.
Policies therefore can evolve as conditions change, he said.
However, the risks posed by aging reactors, seismic fault lines and unresolved nuclear waste disposal plans persist, he said.
The government’s assertions that “nuclear safety is assured, waste disposal is resolved and a social consensus exists” lack supporting evidence, he said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS