Shifting focus to Taiwan and the impact of the Fukushima-1 disaster on that country's nuclear energy policy:

INTERPRESS SERVICE: TAIWAN Opposition Urges Nuclear Phase-out By 2025 (Dennis Engbarth)

"The nuclear power issue is warming up to be a major issue in the coming presidential and national legislative election in January. My story outlines the position of Tsai Ing-wen, who is the presidential candidate for the centrist and Taiwan - centric Democratic Progressive Party, which grew out of the struggle against the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) and which is now back as an elected (right-wing) ruling party. Since the KMT created Taiwan`s three nuclear power plants during the authoritarian period (and of course didnt bother to ask the people whether they wanted the risk) and is pouring funds into the completion of the fourth nuclear power plant, the battle lines are pretty clearly drawn. During its eight years in power from May 2000-May 2008, the DPP initially tried to halt construction of the fourth plant but was blocked by the legislature, which was still (and remains) KMT controlled.

The KMT and its incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou (a Harvard University law PHD and ex spy on students) are rather scared of the nuclear power issue given what has happened in Germany, Italy etc and the revitalization of Taiwan`s nuclear power and environmental movement. At a civic forum on the issue in Taipei last weekend, Environmental Protection Administration Minister Shen Chih-hung said that the issue should be decided mainly through ``professional commissions`` and should NOT become an election issue, which of course means that it is already an election issue that is hurting the KMT, especially among independent voters.

Last weeks forum on on nuclear power and Taiwan`s energy policy had the most ever discussion of alternatives I`ve seen. Besides a long presentation by Tsai on her policy proposal (which environmentalists see as rather too moderate but certainly preferable to the KMT`s ``full speed ahead`` (of course, the KMT premier insists that N4 will only be loaded and started if it is 100 percent safe....) and by the German unofficial diplomatic rep her and a rep from the Japan Green Party, there were very detailed presentations on clean coal with carbon storage, solar, wind, dispersed and intelligent power systems (the system now run by the state-power Taiwan Power Co is very centralized and dumb and very unfriendly to renewables or cogen as Taipower doesn`t want to buy back excessive power for its grid)."

I should mention that the reporter Dennis Engbarth is an old friend of mine from my days in East Lansing, Michigan in the 1970's.

And so it goes!
Charley Noble