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Referendum will not mean nuclear policy has changed: premier

ROC Central News Agency

2013/02/26 18:27:03

Taipei, Feb. 26 (CNA) Although the Cabinet has demonstrated willingness to agree to a referendum on a controversial nuclear power plant project, this does not mean its nuclear policy has changed, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said in a written report on his administration's policies.

Jiang had originally been scheduled to present the report to the Legislature orally early Tuesday, but was prevented from doing so by lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, who demanded that work on the under-construction No. 4 Nuclear Power Plant in northern Taiwan be halted at once.

Explaining his announcement made the previous day that the government is willing to accept a referendum on the issue amid mounting calls for the project to be scrapped, Jiang said in the report that the decision does not mean that the government has changed its policy.

It is aimed at "resolving the dispute," he said.

Guaranteeing nuclear safety, steadily reducing the use of nuclear power, building a green, low-carbon environment and establishing a nuclear-free homeland in a gradual manner have comprised the consistent stance of the government on the nuclear power issue, the report said.

The same principles will be applied to the issue of whether or not to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei -- which is already home to two aging nuclear power plants, Jiang said in the policy report.

His report also said that if the No. 4 plant is scrapped, Taiwan will suffer the pain of lost investment, high electricity rates and electricity rationing.

It will also lose its economic growth, and the idea of building a low-carbon homeland will become more elusive. However, if the public still insists that the plant should be scrapped, the Cabinet will respect the choice and put the issue to a referendum, the report said.

The government's willingness to face the referendum challenge does not mean that its policy of continuing to build the plant is being relaxed or changed, the report added.

The move is an attempt to settle once and for all the dispute that has embroiled local society for two decades, it said.

Construction of the new power plant began in March 1999, but was suspended the following year soon after former President Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party took power.

Construction was resumed in 2001 after the Legislature, which was dominated by the KMT and its allies, ordered the Cabinet to continue carrying out the project based on a ruling by the Council of Grand Justices.

Commercial operations of the plant's first reactor have been postponed several times, most recently following the March 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, a disaster that added fuel to the fire of public concerns about nuclear safety .

(By Tseng Ying-yu and Elizabeth Hsu)