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The News Lens
Date: 2019/02/01
By: TNL Daily News
Credit: Travis Wise / CC BY 2.0
Taiwan will maintain its goal of abolishing nuclear power by May 2025, despite the outcome of last November’s referendum that required the removal of an article of legislation calling for all six nuclear reactors on the island to be shuttered.
That article was subsequently repealed, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Thursday published a revised national energy strategy affirming the government’s intention to abolish nuclear, and calling for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told a press conference that resistance from local governments, difficulty in maintaining Taiwan’s aging reactors, a lack of storage space for spent fuel rods, and a failure to complete an application to extend an agreed decommissioning deadline with the Atomic Energy Commission make it impossible for Taiwan to continue with nuclear.
The move is likely to cause consternation among proponents of the referendum, support for which which garnered almost 6 million signatures, equivalent to 59 percent of the vote. Pro-nuclear activists have vowed to hold another referendum on the issue in 2020 if the government failed to restart non-operational reactors. [FULL STORY]
