The nuclear incident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan that began in March is forcing the world to take another look at the potentially irreversible disasters that this supposedly clean and cheap energy source could cause.
Countries are giving serious consideration to nuclear power’s position in the triangular relationship between energy, environmental protection and economic development. Switzerland and Germany have released a timetable for scrapping nuclear power and in the middle of this month, Italy held a referendum to decide the future of nuclear power in their country.
After the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, Italy rejected nuclear power in a referendum, but after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took office, he actively pushed for the construction of nuclear power plants.
The Italian government had planned the referendum to obtain the public’s authorization to resume a nuclear power program. However, following the unexpected disaster in Japan, public opinion made a U-turn. Sensing the change in the wind, the Italian government said it would delay its nuclear power policy by a year and cancel the referendum.
However, the opposition and environmental groups filed a lawsuit demanding that the referendum be held and on June 1, the court ruled that it should be held as scheduled. The result of the referendum was that they won by a landslide, as 94 percent of voters refused to embrace nuclear power again. The voter turnout rate was 57 percent, the first time in 16 years that voter turnout in a referendum exceeded 50 percent. The result forced Berlusconi to say that perhaps Italy must say goodbye to the possibility of nuclear power and focus on developing renewable energy.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s legislature ignored protests by environmental groups and passed a budget of more than NT$14 billion (US$486 million) for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) on June 13. The outcome of the Italian referendum should be an inspiration for Taiwan.
The flawed design of the Referendum Act (公投法) is probably the reason why these environmental protection groups are reluctant to initiate a referendum. Even so, I still believe that the realization of direct democracy as protected by the Constitution is the most effective way to force the government — which continues to ignore public opinion — to make a concession.
In addition, a friendly and complete referendum design is crucial to the smooth and successful implementation of the referendum.
Hopefully, all presidential candidates in next year’s presidential election will announce their stance on amending the Referendum Act and make a solemn pledge to return power to the public.
Huang Kuo-chang is an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institutum Iurisprudentiae.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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