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Legislature: Nuke construction to be halted until referendum

ROC Central News Agency

2013/02/26 21:39:04

Taipei, Feb. 26 (CNA) Lawmakers from across party lines reached consensus Tuesday that the long-running work of building a new nuclear power plant in northern Taiwan should be suspended until an outcome is achieved of a referendum on the controversial project.

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng read out the conclusion of an inter-party negotiation, saying that until the referendum is held, no additional budget should be authorized for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project and that nuclear fuel rods should not be installed.

Construction work should be suspended, except for work that has been contracted out or involves safety tests, Wang said, adding that an inter-party team will be formed to ensure that the politically binding requests are carried out by the Cabinet.

The inter-party negotiation was held after opposition Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers disrupted the morning session of the Legislative Yuan that day to demand an immediate halt to the construction of the new nuclear power plant in New Taipei, the freezing of relevant budgets and a revision of the Referendum Act.

The move came after Premier Jiang Yi-huah said a day earlier that the government is willing to accept a referendum on the controversial nuclear power project that began in 1999.

During the Tuesday negotiation, lawmakers from across party lines also agreed to hold talks on a proposal to revise the Referendum Act to lower the threshold for the passage of referendums.

They also decided to invite Jiang to the Legislature March 8 to report on the No. 4 nuclear plant project and answer lawmakers' questions, according to the Legislative Yuan.

However, Wang said he doubts that a referendum can fix the nuclear plant problem once and for all.

It is a complicated problem that cannot be resolved "with one sentence," he said. "There are too many variables."

Lee Hung-chou, a spokesman for the state-run Taiwan Power Co., which runs the country's nuclear power plants, said the company will adhere to the legislative consensus.

(By Chen Wei-ting, Chen Shun-hsieh, Lin Meng-ju and Elizabeth Hsu)