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One of the top stories from this past week was that anti-nuclear power advocates staged rallies in several cities across Taiwan. They were demanding that Taiwan’s three operating nuclear power plants be decommissioned and that plans for a fourth plant be scrapped.
Rallies were held in Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung on Saturday afternoon. The organizers of the rallies urged the government to abandon nuclear power and shift to new energy sources. Anti-nuclear groups in Taiwan have held an annual rally since 2011, the year of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Meanwhile, the government warned on Saturday that Taiwan could face power rationing next year as the margin of reserve electricity keeps falling.
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Also this past week, Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji says that the outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian flu, which has devastated Taiwanese poultry farms, is now under control.
The outbreak hit Taiwan in January, affecting both water and land fowl. As of Monday, more than 6.3 million fowl had been culled, resulting in losses of over NT$2.5 billion (nearly US$80 million).
During an international conference on avian flu prevention in Taipei on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji said that there are no new reports of infected farms. This is the first time in two months that the number of new cases has dropped to zero.
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And finally, this past week, a French restaurant located in the central city of Taichung called “Le Moût” has been selected as one of the top 50 restaurants in Asia for the second year in a row.
Le Moût placed 26th in the annual rankings compiled by Italian mineral water brands S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna. The 2015 list was released on Monday. The Taichung restaurant, ranked 24th last year, was the only restaurant in Taiwan to make the prestigious list.
The top five Asian restaurants on the 2015 S. Pellegrino and Acqua Panna list were “Gaggan” in Bangkok, “Narisawa” in Tokyo, “Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet” in Shanghai, “Nihonryori RyuGin” in Tokyo, and “Restaurant André” run by Taiwanese chef André Chiang in Singapore.