Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Achieving a nuclear-free homeland

Shih Shin-Min 施信民

This year is the 10th anniversary of Japan’s Great Tohoku Earthquake and the ensuing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster. It is also a crucial year for Taiwan, one that could see the nation bidding farewell to nuclear power and marching in the direction of a “nuclear-free homeland.” A national referendum is to take place on Aug. 28 to decide the future of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan led to the failure of four reactor cores and gas explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, causing a large amount of radioactive material to leak. The Japanese government ordered the emergency evacuation of about 140,000 residents living within a 20km radius.

Import bans must have scientific foundation

Vincent Tsai 蔡濁瀝

The Chinese government on Feb. 26 announced an import ban on Taiwanese pineapples, saying that scale insects were found in several imported batches.

As a result, pineapples that were originally scheduled to be exported to China had no place to go, and pineapple farmers found themselves exposed to huge losses.

The Council of Agriculture (COA) has said that even if Taiwanese pineapples were contaminated with scale insects, the Japanese government would only require that they be fumigated before being released.

Referendums need rational debate

Taipei Times Editorial

The referendums scheduled for August can be regarded as a midterm exam for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, in which its core policies of environmental protection and a nuclear energy phase-out are to be scrutinized.

One of the referendum proposals, concerning the relocation of a liquefied natural gas terminal project by state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan away from an algal reef ecosystem off Taoyuan’s coast, had been widely neglected until environmental advocates expanded their strategic engagement with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).