President Ma Ying-jeou on June 3 carried out the second day of his two-day "energy tour." In the morning, the president held a breakfast meeting with employees at the Third Nuclear Power Plant in southern Taiwan's Pingtung County. In addition to asking employees at the plant about their career plans, work safety, and health, the president spoke with the media about public skepticism on the safety of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in northern Taiwan. President Ma reiterated that an operating license will not be issued unless any and all concerns about the safety of its operation are addressed. This, he said, has been the stance of the government all along.
After completing his tour of energy facilities in the south, the president in the afternoon went to the site of the Fourth (Lungmen) Nuclear Power Plant being built by the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) in New Taipei City. The president watched the pump house and water-tight doors in operation, and inspected a 48,000-ton raw water reservoir and the No. 1 reactor vessel. The president also listened to a briefing by the plant's management on seven measures that will be in place to prevent damage to the plant in the event of a tsunami.
The president then interacted with employees at the nuclear power plant during a reception intended to boost their morale. He expressed confidence in the work being carried out by all those associated with the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, and praised them for their efforts. The president also called on plant employees to utilize all means available to explain to society their experiences in the nuclear power facilities, and to share their expertise with others. This, he said, would keep the public from being misled by poor information.
For example, some have expressed doubts about the plant's reactor internal pumps and control rods because they are being designed and manufactured in different countries, which would suggest, say critics, that the plant is being put together in piecemeal fashion. President Ma stated that according to the briefing he received about the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, this method of construction of these devices is quite common. For instance, the president said, four nuclear power plants in Japan have turned to this construction method, and the technologies are internationally patented and thus fully compatible, so there shouldn't be any concerns about safety. In addition, Taiwan's nuclear power plants are rated among the safest in the world, he noted. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for example, has ranked Taiwan's unit capability factor (UCF) fifth in the world from 2010 to 2012, while Taiwan's nuclear safety ranking from Nucleonics Week was among the top four in the world from 2009 to 2012.
Shortly thereafter, during a discussion with the traveling press corps, president Ma first listened to a briefing by Taipower Chairman Hwang Jung-Chiou (黃重球) on the safety of the Fourth (Lungmen) Nuclear Power Plant, and a briefing by Minister of Economic Affairs Chia-Juch Chang (張家祝) on the assessment of alternative energy sources as Taiwan moves toward becoming a nuclear-free country. The president invited the media to submit questions after the two briefings, which were answered by officials and experts in attendance. At the conclusion, President Ma provided summary remarks, stressing that the day's discussions focused on more than just whether construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be halted, but also explored whether the use of nuclear power in Taiwan should even be continued and the issue of energy safety. The president said that decisions on these important topics will affect Taiwan for the next 30-50 years. He pointed out that Taiwan is reliant on imports for over 98% of its energy needs, and its energy grid is totally independent from those of other nations. Consequently, Taiwan has no choice but to rely on itself in its energy policy and must look at the situation from a broad perspective, considering all factors in play, he said. President Ma stressed that Taiwan cannot breezily assume that its power consumption will not grow in the future.
The president mentioned that Taiwan's First, Second, and Third Nuclear Power Plants, along with the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant if and when it becomes operational, will be able to generate an aggregate of nearly 60 billion kWh of electricity. He said that if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is not completed and the Third Nuclear Power Plant is taken out of commission in 2025, Taiwan will face a major power shortage. Such problem, he noted, cannot be solved just by conserving power or phasing out industries that consume large amounts of electricity. What's more, he said, Taiwan at present has no plans to build new power plants, and even if it did formulate plans for new facilities, it could not build coal-burning plants. Moreover, solar power, wind power, and other renewable energies cannot make up for the impending gap, the president mentioned, which leaves natural gas as the only other option, so Taiwan cannot afford to write off any source of energy, as this would hurt the economy and is not in step with global trends.
In discussing world trends in energy development, the president stated that 435 nuclear reactors are now in service throughout the world, while another 231 reactors are either being built or are in the planning stages. The countries building these facilities include those have experienced nuclear disasters in the past, such as the United States, Russia, and Japan, and also feature oil-producing nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, along with countries that emphasize green energy, such as Sweden, Finland, and the UK, as well as the BRICS nations─Brazil, Russia, India, mainland China, and South Africa, he said. All of these countries use nuclear energy to diversify their sources of power and to increase energy independence, the president remarked. And Taiwan's principal trading competitor, Korea, is not abandoning nuclear power, either. On the contrary, in order to ensure energy safety and maintain its global industrial competitiveness, it is sharply increasing its reliance on nuclear power, which is scheduled to account for 50% of the nation's power generation by 2050, he said. Also, Korea is aggressively working to become the world's third largest exporter of nuclear power plants.
President Ma stressed that the government must take into consideration both the safety of energy sources as well as the stability of energy sources in working toward the goal of creating a nuclear-free country. Taiwan will need to find viable alternative sources of energy in order to achieve three key requirements that it has formulated, namely: no power rationing, maintaining reasonable power prices, and fulfilling the nation's pledges to the international community to reduce carbon emissions.
The president stated that the goal of this tour has been to help media executives and journalists better understand Taiwan's energy challenges and the significance of nuclear power to Taiwan. At a time when many nations are developing nuclear energy sources, the people of Taiwan must carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of abandoning nuclear power. Thus when a national referendum on whether to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is held, each voter must clearly understand what price he or she will have to pay for the decision that is reached, and how this compares to the current state of affairs, the president said. He called on individuals to carefully ponder how we can make the environment better and what can be done to further strengthen Taiwan's national competitiveness, and said he hopes that the public and the government can work together to find sources of electricity that will support Taiwan's economic development for decades to come.
Among those accompanying the president were Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), Minister of Economic Affairs Chang, Deputy Secretaries-General to the President Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) and Hsiung Kuang-hua (熊光華), Taipower Chairman Hwang, Chung-Hua Institute for Economic Research Chairman Liang Chi-Yuan (梁啟源), Taiwan Research Institute President Tsai-Yi Wu (吳再益), and National Tsing Hua University Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Science Director Ge-Ping Yu (喻冀平).