nuclear-news

Taiwanese mobilising against nuclear power

Out of concern over nuclear safety, the main opposition Democratic
Progressive Party has drafted a nuclear-free homeland bill, which is
being reviewed at the Legislative Yuan.

Under the draft bill, Taiwan must become nuclear-free by 2025.

Civic group planning anti-nuclear protest parade for March
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=201301040035
(By Zoe Wei and Elizabeth Hsu)   Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) A Taipei-based
non-government environmental protection organization has decided to
hold an anti-nuclear demonstration parade in March in an attempt to
stop a controversial planned nuclear power plant from being given the
green light to begin commercial operations.

The planned parade is slated for March 9, two days before the second
anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011 in
Japan, a spokesman for the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance said
Friday.

According to the preliminary plan, Taipei and Kaohsiung will be the
locations for simultaneous protest parades. However, the alliance is
still working on details of the planned event, which will be the
follow-up to an anti-nuclear flag-raising campaign the organization
launched last October, the spokesman said.

The alliance seeks to make the public ponder “whether or not Taiwan
isr not Taiwan is the right place for nuclear power,” the spokesman
said.

On Oct. 10 last year, when the Republic of China celebrated its Double
Ten National Day, the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance launched a
campaign calling for people nationwide to hoist anti-nuclear flags
instead of the national flag.

Since then, over 4,000 white flags bearing the slogans “No Nukes — No
more Fukushima,” printed in both Chinese and English, have been hung
at more than 4,000 different locations around Taiwan, according to the
organization.

Taiwan has three operating nuclear power plants, two of which are
situated in New Taipei in northern Taiwan, while the other is in
Pingtung County in the south.

Since 1999, the state-run Taiwan Power Co. has been constructing a
fourth, also in New Taipei. Because of the Fukushima nuclear power
plant accident, however, commercial operations at the No. 4 plant have
been indefinitely postponed from the scheduled 2011.

The nuclear catastrophe in northeastern Japan in 2011, the largest
nuclear disaster since Russia’s Chernobyl disaster of 1986, boosted
Taiwan’s anti-nuclear voice as public fear mounted that a similar
disaster could strike Taiwan, which, like Japan, is located on a
seismic belt.

Out of concern over nuclear safety, the main opposition Democratic
Progressive Party has drafted a nuclear-free homeland bill, which is
being reviewed at the Legislative Yuan.

Under the draft bill, Taiwan must become nuclear-free by 2025.

January 7, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ACTION