Major transport projects have long been presented as a potential boon to Taiwan’s south around election time.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/10/15
By: Eryk Smith

Taiwan’s Minister of Transportation and Communications Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) made the news after telling a committee his office was reconsidering an idea to extend the High-Speed Rail (THSR/HSR) to Pingtung, a campaign pledge made by now-President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during her first unsuccessful bid in 2012.

Former assessments accurately – in my view – essentially concluded that while it is technically ‘doable,’ the money spent on such a branch HSR line would be disproportionate to the benefits created. A 2017 report estimated about 5,000 people would use the line daily, but it would incur as much as NT$200 million (US$6.4 million) in annual losses.

One can take a Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) commuter train from New Zuoying or the Main Kaohsiung Station and arrive at the newly-constructed, elevated Pingtung Station in about 30-40 minutes. The line is also now electrified and by 2020, the line from Pingtung over to the east coast should also be, as all of Taiwan’s TRA lines convert.

Minister Wu’s talking points put the new guesstimate on the Pingtung HSR extension price tag at between roughly NT$62 and NT$75 billion (US$2 billion or so), but the same report that offered two possible routes and two price tags noted that the line would not pay for itself within 30 years and leave the HSR with a NT$10 billion (US$322 million) debt to work off.    [FULL  STORY]

Shiyu is a tiny islet of Kinmen less than 1 square kilometer in size

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/10/15
By: Huang Tzu-ti, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s Kinmen County, which consists of a number of outlying islands, is well-known for its status as both a hub of tourism and a strategic battlefront.

Among the many islets that make up Kinmen is Taiwan’s tiniest military post, Shiyu Islet (獅嶼), which is a mere 0.007 square kilometers in size.

Located in Jinxia Water Tunnel (金廈水道) northwest of Kinmen, the islet sits 1 km from Leiyu, better known as Lesser Kinmen (小金門), and 4 km from the southeast Chinese city of Xiamen.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/10/15
By: Huang Ya-hsih and William Yen

The Vatican, Oct. 15 (CNA) President Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras has thanked

Taiwan for standing with the country through the good times and bad, Presidential Office spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said Monday.

The message was delivered by Honduran Vice President Olga Alvarado on behalf of Hernandez during talks with Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) after a canonization ceremony held at the Vatican on Sunday, Lin said.

During the meeting, Chen also thanked Honduras on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for the country’s support and asked Alvarado to extend his greetings to Hernandez.

The two vice presidents talked about how to further strengthen exchanges and cooperation between Taiwan and Honduras, including in education, Lin said.
[FULL  STORY]

MOVEMENT: While lawmakers demanded guarantees that the power plant would not be built, a plan to replace coal-fired generators in Taichung had its first environmental review

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 16, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday caved in to demands by lawmakers

that it revoke the planned coal-fired Shenao Power Plant’s (深澳電廠) environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval within two months, after being pressured by members of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee

Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) previous Shenao plant in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳) was decommissioned in 2007 and demolished in 2011, but a proposal by the state-run utility to build a new plant at the site passed an EIA in 2006.

While the utility’s revised plan for the project also passed an EIA in May, Premier William Lai (賴清德), faced with protests, on Friday last week announced that the plans would be shelved, saying that electricity supply would be assured after CPC Corp, Taiwan’s third liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project passed an EIA on Monday last week.
[FULL  STORY]

Decommissioning period for first nuclear plant to start in December: AEC

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/10/13
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In a report to be presented to the Legislative Yuan next Monday, the Cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council (AEC) says the repackaging of nuclear waste on Orchid Island should be completed by September 2020.

For decades, low-radioactive waste from Taiwan’s three nuclear plants has been stored on the island, which lies off the coast of Taitung County and is mostly inhabited by indigenous people.

Repeated protests amid health and safety concerns led to attempts to find alternative storage sites, while the current government promised to make Taiwan nuclear-free by 2025.

On August 6, the local government on Orchid Island wrote to state utility Taiwan Power Corporation (Taipower) that it agreed with the resumption of transfers of repackaged nuclear waste, the Central News Agency reported Saturday.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/10/13
By: Huang Ya-shih and Frances Huang

Gandolfo, the Vatican, Oct. 12 (CNA) Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and his

delegation to the Vatican, on Friday received a warm welcome in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Paul VI’s summer residence.

Chen, who led the delegation to the Holy See to attend a ceremony to canonize Pope Paul VI and six others on Sunday, visited the palace as part of his itinerary. They were the only visitors and their visit was perceived as a special arrangement by the palace.

The trip came just after China and the Vatican signed an agreement concerning the appointment of bishops in China. Chen was appointed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as her envoy to the Holy See to strengthen bilateral ties between Taipei and the Vatican.

Castel Gandolfo, about 25 kilometers from Rome, was designated by Pope Urban VIII in 1623 as a summer residence and every pope after him had resided in the palace during the summer before Pope Francis broke the routine in 2013 and opened it to the public in 2016.    [FULL  STORY]