Energy and Nuclear Policy

    Taiwan is facing the problem of power shortage so it is urgent for us to find a solution. Also, I believe that most of the country in the world have encountered the same problem now. So, we want to take a deep look at how people from other countries view the issue of power shortage and the use of nuclear power, and the possible solution we can think of. Therefore, my partner and I decided to conduct an interview about energy and nuclear policy. 

    The first question we ask in our interview is “Do you support the use of nuclear power?” We have received three positive answers from our Chinese and two American interviewees, while our Japanese and Malaysian interviewees don’t support it. Then we assume that the answer might have something to do with the land area and the population density of the country. So we ask them a follow-up question that if they got wider territory and land with no people live aside, will it influence their willingness to building a nuclear power plant. And both of them say they would be more willing to support it under the situation. Also, we found that government policy also plays an important role. Our American interviewee mention that government will buy the house around the nuclear power plant and assist those residents to find another place to live, while China government chose to build their nuclear power plant in the middle of nowhere, so it won’t harm any people. So we draw another conclusion, which is if governments can come up with a proper and complete plan, citizens will be more willing to accept it.

    Then we ask the interviewees which they think is a more efficient way to solve the power shortage: saving energy, or exploiting new energy? Surprisingly, four of our interviewees think that saving energy is the better way because they can take action in their daily life. They also told us that exploiting new energy is an impossible task for an ordinary citizen, it’s more like the responsibility of the government and the scientists.  However, they still find it difficult to have a significant effect only by saving energy. So we think that saving energy might be the solution in the short-term if we want to see it further, we still need to turn to exploit new and eco-friendly energy for help.

    After the interview, we realize that people from different countries face the same energy crisis, therefore, they come up with several different ideas toward this issue. Yet they all treat this issue rigidly. By interviewing people from different countries, we can learn from their experience and try to view the same event from different aspects, and I believe that it could help a lot while we try to solve this problem.