Former Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairman Kao Cheng-yan (高成炎) has led a campaign promoting a referendum proposal to repurpose the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), while Nuclear Myth Busters founder Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修) has initiated a referendum proposal to relaunch work on the plant.
Both passed the Central Election Commission’s review on March 19 and are to advance to the signature-gathering second stage after household registration offices finish checking the names of the signatories to the proposals.
The anti-nuclear power coalition Stopnukesnow, which consists of dozens of environmental groups, on April 2 submitted 2,800 petitions for a referendum proposal against producing more nuclear waste before the government finds a final disposal site.
So now there are four nuclear power-related referendums that are likely to “clash” with next year’s presidential and legislative elections: two referendums proposed by nuclear power advocates on resuming construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and on using nuclear power to reduce the proportion of coal-fired energy, and two by opponents to nuclear power on stopping the creation of more nuclear waste and to close the mothballed plant.
Referendums are a form of direct democracy, which are not only manifested through debate, advocacy and mobilization during the signature-gathering phase, and the debate over public policy, but also through the concrete results of referendums.
To take responsibility for Taiwan’s sustainable environmental development and for future generations, groups opposed to nuclear power are making an all-out effort to mobilize supporters.
However, apart from the expression of opinion through nationwide referendums, attention should also be given to the rights to hold local referendums for people living within the evacuation zones of nuclear power plants.
Hopefully it will be possible to amend the law to also allow local residents constitutionally protected rights of equality and to defend themselves.
Taiwan is a small and densely populated nation sitting on intertwining active fault lines and is frequently affected by earthquakes and typhoons. These factors deprive the nation of sufficient natural and social conditions to develop nuclear power and make it vulnerable to the risk of nuclear disaster.
Chen Wen-shan (陳文山), a professor in National Taiwan University’s geosciences department, on Feb. 11 told a news conference that Taiwan conducted a comprehensive investigation of active faults after the 921 Earthquake and an announcement by the Central Geological Survey in 2010 showed a total of 33 active fault lines.
The survey indicated that the Shanjiao Fault (山腳斷層) on the northwestern part of the Taipei Basin has grown — from 35km to at least 100km long — to within a mere 7km from the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) and 5km from the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District (萬里).
The Hengchun fault line was found to have grown from 16km to 55km, stretching through the gate of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, only 1km away from the nuclear island area.
It is rare anywhere else in the world to see nuclear power plants built adjacent to fault lines without awareness of them. If the government plans to delay the decommissioning of these plants, it must consider the safety effects of tectonic faults.
In the past, the governments of New Taipei City — which was then Taipei County — Yilan County and Taipei all held referendums on construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant before the Referendum Act (公民投票法) came into effect.
Among all voters in Gongliao District, 96.13 percent opposed the construction, but these results did not have any legal standing.
After the bill’s enactment, a local referendum on the plant’s construction was proposed in 2013 in compliance with the law, but it was turned down by the Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee, which cited Article 2 of the act as stipulating that local referendums shall apply to “initiatives or reference of important policies regarding local autonomy,” while the issue of the plant construction is a major national policy that goes beyond local autonomy and should therefore be determined in a nationwide referendum.
The rejection was highly inappropriate. After all, once a nuclear disaster occurs, the constitutionally guaranteed rights of existence, work and property would be severely infringed upon for residents of Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Yilan who live near the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, as well as for residents of Pingtung and Taitung County who live near the Ma-anshan plant.
Local referendums should be held to allow residents to the express their opinion.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster on March 11, 2011, reignited the debate over the safety of nuclear power. Japan has granted local governments the right to make a final decision not only on the construction of nuclear power facilities, but also on whether to resume the operations of a plant. Local governments often base their decisions on voting results and fully respect the right of residents.
In 1996, Maki, a town now merged into the city of Niigata, was the first to veto the construction of a nuclear power plant through a local referendum. Several other similar construction cancelations have occurred in Japan as a result of local referendum results and public opinion.
In the 1970s and 1980s, statewide ballot measures became common in the US. In 1976 alone, California, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Ohio and Washington all held state ballots regarding the construction of nuclear power plants.
Throughout the years, more than 20 state-level ballots on nuclear plants and waste have been held in the US.
In contrast to referendums on nuclear power plants, the final disposal site for storing low-level radioactive waste requires approval by a local referendum before being selected as a potential site according to Article 11 of the Act on Sites for Establishment of Low Level Radioactive Waste Final Disposal Facility (低放射性廢棄物最終處置設施場址設置條例).
The article stipulates that “a local referendum shall be held in the county or city in which the site is located ... without being limited by the provision of Article 2 of the Referendum Act.”
Building, resuming construction of and operating a nuclear power plant, as well as delaying decommissioning of a plant, all pose a higher risk than a final disposal site for low-level nuclear waste. Local residents should have the right to hold referendums on these matters.
An amendment that would add a new paragraph to Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) has been proposed in the current legislative session.
The proposal would stipulate that mandatory local referendums be held by city and county governments within 50km of the site of a nuclear facility to approve any construction, installation of fuel rods and nuclear power plant operations.
Regrettably, the proposed amendment has only passed a first reading and has not yet been scheduled for committee review.
The amendment should stipulate mandatory local referendums to be held within a 50km radius evacuation zone on the issues of building nuclear reactor facilities, inserting fuel rods and starting plant operations, along with the plant’s application for license renewal, which essentially means applying for a decommissioning delay.
These actions should only be allowed to proceed after being approved in a referendum. The Legislative Yuan should speed up legislative work to guarantee basic human rights for residents living within the evacuation zone of a nuclear power plant.
Pan Han-chiang is the deputy general secretary of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming.
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