(June 24 1994) On May 29, an estimated 20,000 anti-nuclear activists marched though Taipei in the island's largest protest against the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant.
(414.4101) WISE Amsterdam - Members of more than 100 environmental groups across Taiwan and representatives from Japanese anti-nuclear organizations took part in the demonstration.
The demonstrators stopped at the American Institute in Taiwan to protest U.S. firms selling nuclear technology to Taiwan, and at the ruling party headquarters to demand a ban on nuclear power generation. The state-run Taiwan Power Company operates three nuclear power plants and plans to build three more. Many islanders are concerned about the plants' safety but Taipower promised they are "200 per cent safe".
Meanwhile the chairman of state-owned utility Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) and his wife slept at a nuclear power plant compound on June 3/4 in a bid to blunt opposition to construction of a new nuclear plant. "I'm in good spirits. I plan to take my wife and children again next week," he said.
President Lee Teng-hui had ordered Taipower executives to sleep at nuclear plant compounds after protests against construction of the new nuclear plant increased.
In a referendum on May 22, residents of Kungliao Village on the outskirts of Taipei voted down construction of the new plant (see WISE NC 413.4097). Work on the new US$6.4 billion plant, located 40 km (25 miles) east of Taipei, was suspended for six years because of environmental protests following the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet Union in 1986. The government revived the project in 1992 and construction work has resumed.
Sources:
Contact: Duncan Marsh, The Asian Ecological Society, Box 843, Thungai University, Taichung, Taiwan 40704.
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