Kungliao residents say nuclear plant threatens tourism

Residents of Kungliao, Taipei County, where the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is located, said yesterday that construction of the plant would harm eco-tourism plans for the area.

Fourteen months after the Cabinet announced it would resume construction of the plant, residents of Kungliao say they feel betrayed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

"It's been two years since he took the leadership. We've never heard a word from him about the promises he made in late 1999," said Yang Kuei-yin (楊貴英), a 57-year-old woman who has been part of the anti-nuclear movement since the late 1980s.

Yang made the comments at a panel discussion following the screening of a Public Television Service (PTS) documentary detailing Kungliao residents' opposition to the plant.

Yang's words reminded residents of unfulfilled promises made by Chen in 1999 of turning the declining township into an eco-tourism zone and restoring the status of Taiwan's indigenous Katagalan culture (凱達格蘭文化).

Although the government explained that the decision to resume construction was done to ensure political stability and calm industry, Kungliao residents said yesterday that the process of formulating a nuclear policy had never been done with sincerity.

Since the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association (鹽寮反核自救會) was established in 1988, dissenting voices from the small fishing town of 13,000 have rarely received attention from the mainstream media. After construction was resumed, even vocal anti-nuclear activists had trouble being heard.

The ups and downs of Kungliao anti-nuclear activists over the past 14 years, however, have been now been examined in the PTS documentary, Uncle Ching-tang's 14 Summers (慶塘伯的十四個夏天). The film was produced by Jin Liao (廖錦桂) and is based on the lives of Kungliao's anti-nuclear activists.

"I felt heart-broken when seeing the images of vanished comrades and capricious political figures," said Chen Ching-tang (陳慶塘), a 70-year-old anti-nuclear activist at the panel discussion.

In the documentary, the audience can see the golden sands of the beach at Yenliao Bay (鹽寮灣), once a popular tourist spot on the north coast, which has been gradually destroyed by the plant's construction.

In addition, the audience can hear promises from 1994 when Chen, as a legislator, asked governmental officials, "can you say it is necessary to build the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant?"

"We don't judge things. We just let images tell stories," said Chen Li-fong (陳立峰), a documentary cameraman.

Activists have questioned the negative impact of the project and now look forward to Chen Shih-nan (陳世男), the newly elected township chief and Chen Ching-tang's son, continuing to challenge the project and preserve the precious marine resources needed for developing future eco-tourism.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) says it is keeping an eye on the impact of the project.

"We will strictly monitor environmental impacts made by any public construction to eco-tourism spots selected by the government," said Liu Tsung-yung (劉宗勇), an EPA official.

The documentary Uncle Ching-tang's 14 Summers will be broadcast at 10pm tomorrow on PTS, channel 53, and repeated at 10am on Friday.