6 Dec (NucNet): Taiwan’s cabinet today announced it has agreed to abolish the target it had previously set of making Taiwan a nuclear-free country by 2025, instead opting to make the planned nuclear phaseout a more long-term objective.
The announcement follows a referendum last month in which voters decisively rejected the nuclear phaseout, 59% to 41%.
The referendum asked whether voters agreed to repeal a paragraph in Article 95 of the Electricity Act, which states that “all nuclear-energy-based power-generating facilities shall cease to operate by 2025”.
Press reports in Taiwan quoted cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka as telling a press conference today that the cabinet had agreed to delete Article 95-1 of the Electricity Act and that the proposal would be sent to the Legislative Yuan, or parliament, for consideration.
Ms Totaka said that during the meeting, Premier Lai Ching-te said the government's goal of promoting a non-nuclear Taiwan remained unchanged, but the deadline will be cancelled, according to the report.
The so-called 2025 Non-Nuclear Homeland goal was a policy pledged by president Tsai Ing-wen during the 2016 presidential election. The goal was to phase out nuclear power by 2025, while increasing the percentage of renewable energy and natural gas, and reducing the use of coal.
Taiwan has four commercially operational nuclear power reactors at two sites – Kuosheng and Maanshan. According to data by the International Atomic Energy Agency, nuclear power provided about 9% of Taiwan’s electricity output in 2017.
Chinshan, Taiwan’s third nuclear power station, has two units which were permanently shut down earlier this month, according to the IAEA. Operator Taipower announced yesterday that it intends to decommissions Chinshan-1.
Construction of a fourth nuclear power station at Lungmen was suspended following the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident in Japan. Two of four planned units were almost completed at the time the project was discontinued.
