Despite rain , thousands rally across Taiwan, against nuclear power

Anti-nuclear rallies held across Taiwan http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201603120019.aspx Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Thousands of people turned out in wet weather Saturday in Taipei to march against the continued use of nuclear energy in Taiwan, while people in other parts of the country also staged similar events.

The march in Taipei was held under the theme “Scrapping the use of nuclear power, facing the problem of nuclear waste and energy transformation” and called attention to the problem of nuclear waste disposal.

The participants demanded that the government push for a “nuclear free homeland” by 2025, pay attention to the nuclear waste problem, remove the nuclear waste on Taiwan’s Orchid Island, and move to decommission the country’s three operational nuclear power plants.

Before the start of the march at 4 p.m., several anti-nuclear activists gave brief speeches at a rally on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.

When the march began, it featured a 30-meter long, 1.5-meter wide banner, carried by about 100 people, which bore words “10,000-year nuclear waste.”

As the protesters passed by the Legislative Yuan, they called for bills that would advance the goal of a “nuclear free homeland.” The march ended at the city’s historic North Gate in symbolic move to drive home the message that nuclear waste will outlast historic architecture.

New Power Party Chairman and Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) took part in the march, promising to monitor the government and join the public in taking on the nuclear waste issue.

“The public’s appeals are identical to my party’s campaign platform before the legislative elections,” he said.

The main sponsor of the march, the National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform (NNAAP), said that five years after the 2011 meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was triggered by a powerful earthquake and ensuing tsunami, many of the people who were affected are still homeless.

The NNAAP estimated that 7,000 people took part in the Taipei march. Meanwhile, in Kaohsiung, a similar event was also held Saturday, sponsored by the Southern Taiwan Nuclear Abolition Action Alliance.

The group said that although Taiwan’s fourth nuclear power plant has been mothballed, civic groups have to remain alert during the government’s transitional period.

The alliance also said that since a magnitude-6.4 earthquake on Feb. 6 that killed 117 people in Tainann, people in southern Taiwan have become even more worried about Taiwan’s third nuclear power plant, which sits on an active fault in Hengchun, Pingtung County.

The reactor there cannot withstand a magnitude-7 earthquake, the alliance said.

Anti-nuclear groups also gathered in Tainan on Saturday, giving speeches and performances and displaying pictures to drive home their message.

Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said that with its typically sunny weather, southern Taiwan could play a crucial role in any move toward replacing nuclear power with green energy.

Similar anti-nuclear marches were staged in Taichung, Taitung and other areas throughout Taiwan.

(By Wu Hsin-yun, Chen Chao-fu, Chang Jung-hsiang and Lilian Wu)
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