Academics back decision to scrap plant

A group of university professors yesterday spoke out in support of the Executive Yuan's decision to terminate the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

"We support Premier Chang Chun-hsiung's (張俊雄) decision to scrap the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and will support the Executive Yuan's future energy policy," said Huang Tsung-le (黃宗樂), president of the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP).

Huang said at a press conference yesterday that existing energy policy drawn up by the former KMT-led government could not meet future energy demand.

Future energy policy in Taiwan, said Huang, would rely on more renewable sources of energy, including solar energy and wind power.

Huang said that TAUP professors were disappointed with existing energy policy designed by the former government, which would derive only three percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

"The cancellation of the controversial plant was based on a professional judgment in terms of science and technology," said Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), TAUP vice president.

Professors argued that Taiwan's priorities would now be promoting decentralized small-sized plants powered by renewable sources of energy and liberalizing the power industry.

"Taiwanese people should have the right to choose sources of electricity they like," said Wu Kuen-yuh (吳焜裕), an occupational safety and health professor from Chinese Medical College.

Wu argued that the plant should had been abandoned a long time ago because no comprehensive risk assessment on both the environment and health had ever been conducted.

Chang Kuo-lung (張國龍), a physics professor at National Taiwan University, said that Premier Chang's decision would benefit future generations.

Chang said that the public had been misled by the former government to put their trust in nuclear energy.

"Soon, Taiwanese people will learn of the negative impacts of building nuclear plants when they receive anti-nuclear information released recently by the DPP," said Chang.

Professors from the Taipei Association (澄社) also showed their support for the Executive Yuan on the issue yesterday at another press conference.

They said that the DPP-led government's decision-making procedure on the issue was not perfect, but they applauded to the decision to scrap the plant because abandoning nuclear energy was a global trend.

Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源), head of the association and a research fellow at the Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology said: "Based on several previous surveys, the rate of supporting building nuclear plants has decreased since 1992."

Chiu added that opposition parties should not mislead the media by releasing what he called unreliable public surveys on the issue.

Chiu said opposition parties were distorting the issue, hoping to provoke the resignation of the Cabinet.

"They [opposition parties] should have not seen the nuclear power plant issue as a political one," said Chiu.