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Success of Taiwan’s antinuclear movement

For now, anti-nuclear forces are focused on opposing any plans for a nuclear dumping ground. Like the U.S. and Japan, Taiwan has not found a final resting place for its nuclear waste, another reason not to expand nuclear power, say activists.

Asia’s nuclear dilemma, Global Post, by Jonathon Adams, 21 March 2010, Taiwan’s activists have successfully slowed, if not stopped, the island’s nuclear expansion. …Save energy, don’t produce more.Kao Cheng-yan has some ideas about that. 

Like many anti-nuclear activists, he says the key to curbing emissions is cutting energy use, not planning ways to meet ever-increasing energy demand. “Taiwan’s energy is too cheap,” he says (it’s about NT$2.67 per kilowatt hour for the consumer, according to Taipower). “Our biggest problem is the need to cut energy consumption.”

He points out that many nuclear plants are in low-lying coastal areas that could be inundated by rising sea levels. And in terms of the power that is used, he still thinks nuclear is too risky, particularly in earthquake-prone Taiwan, which experiences a magnitude 6 or greater quake every 100 days.

He and other Taiwan activists have long opposed any expansion of nuclear power, especially the long-delayed fourth nuclear power plant….

For now, anti-nuclear forces are focused on opposing any plans for a nuclear dumping ground. Like the U.S. and Japan, Taiwan has not found a final resting place for its nuclear waste, another reason not to expand nuclear power, say activists. Activists also want a referendum on the fourth nuclear plant.

Kao insists nuclear power can only hurt, not help, the battle against climate change.

“There’s no way to solve global warming with nuclear power,” he says. “Only renewable energy can solve the problem.”

Nuclear Power | Asia Energy

March 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, politics, Taiwan | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium