Activists hope to raise power plant in local elections

Anti-nuclear activists near the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant's construction site are struggling to arouse public opposition to the project before a local election later this month.

On Jan. 26, Chen Shih-nan (陳世男) of the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association, will run for Kungliao township (貢寮鄉) chief against Chang Ping-hsien (張平賢), brother-in-law of incumbent chief Chao Kuo-tung (趙國棟).

"As long as law enforcement officials remain as alert to vote-buying as they were during the legislative elections last month, we are confident of success," Wu Wen-tung (吳文通), spokesman of the association, told the Taipei Times yesterday.

Wu said that Chao, the current township chief, failed to outline a comprehensive development plan due to his acceptance of the nuclear power project.

"Most residents think that adopting an eco-tourism-oriented development plan is the only way out for our declining fishing township," Wu said. "But the existence of the plant makes it next to impossible for Kungliao to attract tourists."

For example, Wu said, half of the beach at Fulung has been destroyed by the construction of a port for the plant.

With the right township chief at the helm, Wu said pro-plant Kungliao residents would quickly realize that the project hampers local development and that the construction needs to be carefully watched -- if not halted.

Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑), secretary-general of the Green Citizens' Action Alliance, said a township chief with greater environmental awareness would be able to monitor and react to the environmental impacts of the project, which is being built by the Taiwan Power Co.

"Moreover, we argue that the environmental assessment impact of the plant should be reviewed because of a another threat -- newly discovered active undersea volcanoes near the plant," Lai said.

In 2000, researchers from National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Ocean University confirmed the existence of the volcanoes only 50km east of Turtle Island (龜山島).

During the legislative elections last month, with Taiwan suffering from an economic recession, the issue of questioning the wisdom of the plant was taboo for most candidates.

However, four anti-nuclear legislators were elected in Tai-pei County's third electoral district, which includes Kungliao township.

The government, however, recently reiterated its intention to complete construction of the plant.

On Jan. 5, while attending an economics conference in Tainan, Vice Premier Lai In-jaw (賴英照) said that the building of the plant would not be reversed.

Lai did concede, however, that a government study has shown that Taiwan would have little need the 2,700 megawatts of output from the plant because of anticipated power from private plants.