Tsai reiterates 2025 nuclear-free goal
ROC Central News Agency
06/06/2023 08:43 PM
Taipei, June 6 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday reiterated the government's goal to make Taiwan a nuclear-free country by 2025 and expressed hope that the blueprint of a transition project for Taiwan's fourth nuclear power plant would be finalized before her tenure as leader is over, according to Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪).
"There is no need for the public to worry," Tsai was quoted by Lin as saying during a forum with 12 environmental activists at the Presidential Office.
"There will be no option to restart the fourth nuclear power plant because the referendum vote in 2021 vetoed the proposal," she reportedly added.
Lin said Tsai also voiced hope that a plan to transform the mothballed fourth nuclear power plant in New Taipei's Gongliao District could be worked out with the consensus of locals before she steps down as president in May 2024.
Tsai's remarks were meant to alleviate public concern that arose from comments made last month by Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) candidate in the 2024 presidential race, that Taiwan's nuclear reactors might be reactivated in an emergency involving a war or a blockade -- which suggested a departure from the party's 2025 nuclear free homeland goal.
According to Tsai, Lai had outlined an "extreme" situation.
While ruling out the likelihood of an imminent conflict with China, Tsai said the government needs to consider all sorts of "extreme" scenarios and consequences, because national security could not be compromised.
(By Flor Wang and Wen Kuei-hsiang)
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