FAPA urges referendum on nuclear power plant
Sun, Apr
27, 2014 By William Lowther
The
Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) is calling for
an immediate moratorium on the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant
in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei
City.
In a
statement issued on Thursday, the association called on President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) to hold a referendum
“at the earliest possible time” on the future of the plant. It also asked that
a clause in the Referendum Act (公民投票法) be dropped.
The statement
expressed strong support for former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin
I-hsiung (林義雄), who is now
on a hunger strike in protest over the plant’s continued construction.
“As concerned
Taiwanese-Americans, we care deeply about Taiwan
Under normal
circumstances, a referendum stopping the plant would easily pass, it added.
However,
Taiwan’s “archaic” referendum law — which requires 50 percent of eligible
voters to participate for a referendum result to be valid — is unreasonably
high and “impossible to reach,” it added.
“Not a single
referendum in the US
According to
the Washington-based lobby group, which promotes Taiwanese interests to the US government, a “heated debate has been raging”
for more than 20 years over the desirability of the plant located 42km from Taipei
The
association said bad management has led to major delays and construction cost
overruns.
While the
plant is now in its 15th year of construction, other countries have built
similar plants in about four years, the association said.
It said that
the plant is similar to the one damaged in the 2011 Fukushima
Dai-ichi disaster in Japan
“In the case
of a disaster, a major metropolitan area of nearly 7 million people would have
to be evacuated, an impossible task,” the association said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/04/27 /2003589007
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- The Washington-based Formosan Association for
Public Affairs (FAPA)
WHEN-on Thursday
WHAT- is calling for an immediate moratorium on the
construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei
City.
WHY- The plant is similar to
the one damaged in the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi
disaster in Japan
WHERE-not given
HOW-not given
Keywords：
1.urge 督促
2.halt 停止
3.moratorium 暫停
4.valid 有效的
5.overrun 氾濫
6. seismic fault 地震斷層
7.evacuate 疏散
I hope that Fourth Nuclear Power Plant wouldn't be a tragedy as 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster in Japan. However, with a good management, I will support the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant because we don't have enough power to generate electricity.
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