More than 1,000 people yesterday participated in Taipei’s annual march against nuclear power, demanding that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration outline a timeline and concrete steps to realize its promise of a “nuclear-free homeland.”
Protesters wearing yellow armbands and headbands rallied in front of the Presidential Office Building along Ketagalan Boulevard before marching through central Taipei, winding their way past the Legislative Yuan before returning to Ketagalan for an evening of speeches and performances.
The demonstrators shouted slogans calling for the abolition of nuclear power in favor of alternative forms of low-carbon footprint and alternative energy sources, with some campaigners saying that the government has failed to outline how it intends to realize the promised “nuclear-free homeland.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“We are here to remind the government to not forget its promises, because all that we have seen so far are extremely tentative plans. We hope that it will move more quickly, because it is still unclear whether its promises can be realized by the end of the current four-year term,” said Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣), who served as spokesman for the protest.
“We want to see laws passed, because there is no guarantee that the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] will win another term,” she added.
She called for the passage of legislation to govern nuclear waste disposal, as well as a new energy tax and the removal of nuclear waste from Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼).
Photo: CNA
Numerous other environmental groups set up booths along Ketagalan Boulevard, with representatives of different self-help associations joining the march.
“The point of today’s march is to join together to push forward what the government has not done yet, so it is a bit different from the past, when we were directly opposed to the national government,” Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance executive director Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖) said, calling for the establishment of a new government body to handle nuclear waste.
“The issue of nuclear waste disposal is something that we will be dealing with for 10,000, or even a million years, so we have to establish a policy that can be continued across generations and numerous transitions of power,” he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“The government still has not promised that nuclear waste will not be deposited in [Yilan County’s] Nanao Township (南澳), so we are still very concerned,” said Hayung Noqan, an Atayal member of the Nanao Youth Alliance.
Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association director Wu Wen-chang (吳文樟) called on the central government to set a timeline to tear down the unfinished Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
Representatives of Orchid Island’s Tao Aborigines sat in silence in front the Presidential Office Building instead of joining the march.
“We have chosen this means to express our view that the government has been ‘walking in place’ without any progress whatsoever” in moving nuclear waste from Orchid Island, Lanyu Youth Action Alliance member Iomai said.
“So far, there has been absolutely no progress, only election slogans. The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is still there and the others are still running,” said a woman surnamed Chang (張), one of several people who said they were participating in the event because of concern regarding the DPP’s unrealized promises.
Other anti-nuclear power rallies were staged simultaneously in Kaohsiung and Taitung County.
While the nation’s movement against nuclear power goes back decades, the annual march was launched to commemorate Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011.
Later yesterday, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) reiterated that the government’s goal of phasing out the use of nuclear power in Taiwan by 2025 remains unchanged.
The government will brief the public on its plans later this month, including ways to increase the amount of electricity generated by alternative energy sources nationwide to 20 percent by 2025, Hsu said.
Other issues, such as the handling of nuclear waste, upgrades to more efficient thermal power plants and steps to decommission the nation’s three active nuclear power plants will also be addressed, state-run utility Taiwan Power Co (台電) said in a statement.
Additional reporting by CNA
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique