“We will continue to block the bill if they send it again,” Hsieh said.
Environmentalists accused the ministry and Taipower of buying the support of residents who may not be informed about the risks of having the waste dumps nearby.
“I am less worried about residents in Penghu County, as they seem to be adamantly against the project,” said the Green Party Taiwan’s Calvin Wen (溫炳原), who is running in Taipei’s Da-an District (大安) legislative by-election.
Wen said he was concerned about the mixed response in Da-ren Township, where the compensation payment had clearly played a role in winning support.
“I would like to know ... whether sufficient information [on nuclear waste] has been given to residents,” Wen said.
“If the nuclear waste is indeed as safe as Taipower says, I invite the chairman of Taipower to put a barrel of it in his office, instead of buying local residents with money,” Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairwoman Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉) said.
Wen also said that by buying the support of residents, Taipower was merely postponing the development of renewable energy.
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