nuclear-news

Taiwan’s election may mean closure of nuclear power there

Vote Holds Fate of Nuclear Power in Taiwan, NYT By ANDREW JACOBS, January 12, 2012 TAIPEI, Taiwan — When voters here choose a president and a new legislature on Saturday, their decisions will also determine whether Taiwan pulls the plug on a state-backed nuclear power industry that provides the country with a fifth of its electricity.

Although the presidential race has mostly been about pocketbook concerns and, to a lesser extent, Taiwan’s relationship with China, the leading challenger has made the elimination of Taiwan’s reliance on nuclear energy a central plank of her campaign. Pollsters and analysts say that the challenger, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party, has a good chance of unseating the incumbent, Ma Ying-jeou, whose party has long been a reliable backer of nuclear energy.

In recent months, Ms. Tsai has vowed to retire the island’s six aging reactors and has said that she would seek to mothball a problem-plagued nuclear plant that has been under construction since the late 1990s. The plant, whose price tag has nearly doubled to $9.3 billion, was supposed to begin operating this year, but further delays appear likely.

“After Fukushima, our society has realized that nuclear power is not only expensive but also unsafe,” Ms. Tsai said……. Taiwan — an island devoid of oil, gas and coal reserves — appears to be losing its appetite for the atom. Last spring thousands of protesters in Taipei demanded an end to the construction of the latest plant, the Lungmen nuclear project, or Nuke 4. Soon afterward, one of Taiwan’s richest tycoons joined the antinuclear chorus: Chang Yung-fa, chairman of the Evergreen Group, one of the world’s largest shippers.

Opponents say that there are a number of active seismic faults across the island and that more than five million people in northern Taiwan live within an 18-mile radius of two nuclear plants. For the 23 million people living on an island the size of Maryland and Delaware combined, there would be few places to run in the event of a disaster.

“Taiwan is simply ill suited for nuclear energy,” said Tsui Shu-hsin, secretary general of the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, which has been waging a lonely battle against atomic power……..

January 14, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Taiwan | Leave a comment

Demand that nuclear power be an issue in Taiwan’s elections

Groups push for inclusion of nuclear issue in presidential debates Central News Agency    Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) Environmentalists, regular members of the public and scholars gathered Thursday to ask presidential candidates to address the issue of a nuclear-free homeland during the upcoming televised debates ahead of the 2012 presidential election. To get a clear and open message from the candidates is important, according to Yilan Charlie Chen Foundation, the organizer of a platform that promotes discussion on nuclear issues. There has been too much flip-flopping on the commitment to scrapping construction of the country’s fourth nuclear power plant, the foundation stated.

“We want candidates representing the ruling Kuomintang and opposition Democratic Progressive Party and minor opposition People First Party to prove they are serious about our concerns,” said foundation chairman Charlie Chen. Other organizations at the event — including the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance — proposed that the debates should be held in one of the country’s nuclear power plants, so candidates can “face the fear themselves.” The issues of whether to continue building Taiwan’s fourth nuclear power plant, how to handle nuclear waste disposal and phase out nuclear power in the future have been hotly debated in the run-up to the Jan. 14 presidential election.

Three televised debates have been scheduled for Dec. 3, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17. (By Lee Hsin-Yin) http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1768269

November 25, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Taiwan | Leave a comment

Taiwan’s President Ma contradicts himself on nuclear power shutdown

Ma’s promises on energy policies — advocating commercial operations for the fourth nuclear plant, and in the meantime offering that the government would rather sacrifice the power plants than allow nuclear disasters to happen — sound tempting, but are completely contradictory, DPP’s presidential candidate, Tsai Ing-wen, proposed, yesterday.

Ma’s government had only promised to give up on the use of nuclear energy when natural disasters strike, but by then nothing done could relief the calamity that had taken place, Tsai argued.

Existing nuclear plants to be shut down: MaThe China Post, 4 Nov 11President Ma Ying-jeou promised yesterday that the licenses of the existing three nuclear power plants will not be renewed after they expire, and if the fourth power plant begins stable operations before 2016, early shutting down of the first nuclear power plant will be considered Continue reading →

November 4, 2011 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Taiwan | Leave a comment