Taiwan lawmakers brawl over nuclear plant bill

AP via Yahoo ^ | 08/02/2013 | AP

[DFG]

Taiwanese lawmakers exchanged punches and threw water at each other Friday ahead of an expected vote that would authorize a referendum on whether to finish a fourth nuclear power plant on the densely populated island of 23 million people.

Nuclear power has long been a contentious issue in Taiwan and became more so following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. While many Taiwanese consider nuclear power generation an unacceptable safety risk for the earthquake-prone island, economic analyses suggest disruptive power shortages are inevitable if the fourth plant is not completed.

[Vaquero]

Wow! At least there is a dialog there.

It is a dead issue here.

[Mr. K]

Nuclear Power plants do not have to be so big and dangerous

You can build a dozen small SAFE ones that can be buried for 30 years, instead of one huge dangerous one

[Thud]

The Taiwan and South Korean parliaments have had lots of hand to hand combat between legislators. My favorite took place when the Taiwan parliament still had a fair number of ancient refugees from the Mainland who were legislators for life. They were ramming each other with wheelchairs and pulling at each others’ oxygen bottles, with lots of entertaining photos. It even made the evening news here at the time.

[Gay State Conservative]

I'm no expert on nuclear power but Fukishima suggests to me that nuke plants in earthquake or tsunami zones might not be a wise idea.I think one can assume that Fukishima,unlike,Chernobyl,was a state of the art plant that was being properly maintained and managed.And yet it went kaboom.

I don't know if Taiwan is prone to earthquakes but parts of the island are subject to tsunamis and the entire island is prone to regular,huge,typhoons.

[SeekAndFind]

Brawls in the Taiwan parliament are ROUTINE. even Women join in the fun.

[layman]

I wish our senate operated this way .... I’d love to see Harry Reid get punched in the mouth.

[FreedomOfExpression]

I think one can assume that Fukishima,unlike,Chernobyl,was a state of the art plant that was being properly maintained and managed.

I wouldn't assume that. Not that Wikipedia is the final word, but according to this disambiguation page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Nuclear_Power_Plant , there are 2 Fukushima nuclear plants, one put in service in 1971, and one put in service in 1982, which was less affected.

There were also safety violations at one or both of these plants which were unreported for a long time.

And then there is this: Tremors exceeded design limits for 3 reactors.