President Lai Ching-te indicated an openness to nuclear energy in an unusual set of remarks earlier this month. Lai stated that his administration did not rule out the use of advanced nuclear technology, but that this would only proceed on the basis of social consensus...
The Lai administration will soon lift remaining restrictions on food imports from Fukushima disaster-affected Japanese prefectures. This includes Fukushima itself, as well as the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, and Tochigi...
Civil society groups demonstrated in front of the Legislative Yuan this afternoon, in spite of periodic bouts of rain, as a protest against nuclear energy...
A hike in electricity prices that started on Monday will likely lead to another round of political contestation between the pan-Blue and pan-Green camps. In particular, the pan-Blue camp will probably try to redirect public anger regarding the price hikes to push for nuclear energy, in line with its energy platform...
The KMT unveiled its energy policy in August. In particular, the plan calls for lowering the percentage of energy from natural gas-fired power plants to 45% by 2030. Hou You-yi, the KMT’s presidential candidate, claims that coal-fired power plants will be phased out by 2040, when 34% of energy will be produced by gas-fired plants. By 2050, renewable energy will be 57% of Taiwan’s energy according to this plant...
KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi has begun to lean into advocacy of nuclear power in the course of campaigning at a time of flagging ratings. Hou currently polls worse than former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, who is the presidential candidate of the TPP and KMT chair Eric Chu has had to fend off rumors that the KMT is considering replacing Hou as its candidate. Hou is calling for restarts of nuclear plants in Shihmen and Guosheng, the highly controversial No. 4 nuclear reactor, and extending the lifespan of the Ma-anshan plant...
Although it is not likely to become the key issue to be voted on, seeing as presidential elections traditionally revolve around the issue of cross-strait relations, the issue of nuclear energy will be an important substrate of the Taiwanese presidential elections. It proves unsurprising, then, that the issue of nuclear energy has again come up as a contentious issue–as it has long been in Taiwan, given Taiwan’s nature as an island country...
Pan-blue media personality Jaw Shaw-kung, one of the leading figures of the “Fighting Blues” within the KMT, recently took a strong stance against the Tsai administration’s energy transition policy. Jaw criticized the Tsai administration as overly reliant on LNG terminals and instead called for the extension of Reactor No. 2 and Reactor No. 3’s operational lifetimes, as well as the restart of the controversial Lungmen Reactor No. 4. Jaw’s comments are worth examining for how this sheds light upon the pan-Blue camp’s framing of Taiwan’s current energy issues...
In a strange incident, the Guosheng No. 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli, New Taipei experienced an emergency shutdown yesterday morning at 6:33 AM. However, after an investigation, the cause for the shutdown was revealed today. Namely, a chair that was pushed out of the way to clear space for cleaners hit a switch, causing the reactor’s main steam isolation valve to close...
