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Activist chastises nuclear industry

Anti-nuclear activists from the 10th No Nuke Asia Forum march in front of the Presidential Office yesterday to push for a referendum on scrapping the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. PHOTO: LIAO RAY-SHANG, TAIPEI TIMESN

Transfers of nuclear technologies from advanced countries to Asian countries should be terminated in order to promote world peace, former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) said yesterday as the 10th No Nuke Asia Forum opened in Taipei.

When making his opening remarks at the forum, Lin said that governments in favor of nuclear power together with the nuclear industry are pursuing great profits by risking people's lives. In doing so, they were taking advantage of Asian people's ignorance about the dangers of running nuclear power plants, Lin said.

After the1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, developed countries froze new projects for building nuclear power plants. The nuclear industry, facing financial difficulties, thus turned to Asia to look for new markets, Lin said.

But building a nuclear power plant in one's own country was actually like building an unexploded nuclear bomb, Lin charged.

"If the US keeps exporting its nuclear technologies without concern for local peoples' lives, it has no right to condemn those terrorist attacks against it," Lin said.

Similarly, Japan's memorials to the atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki look ironic as it continues exporting its nuclear technologies, Lin said.

Since Sept. 21, Lin and local anti-nuclear activists have been carrying out a planned year-long protest to call for a referendum on nuclear power. By the year 2004, they want a plebiscite in which the people of Taiwan can decide the future of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

Local anti-nuclear activists, who persistently resist the establishment of the plant, have argued for years that Taiwan, like many other countries, is the victim of the multinational corporations' search for new markets.

The nuclear reactors and power generators of the controversial plant are designed by the US-based General Electric, but are actually built by Japanese firms Hitachi and Toshiba.

According to Japanese activists attending the forum, the two Japanese companies have been implicated in a recent scandal pertaining to coverups carried out by various power utilities, including the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

"We do hope that Taiwanese people can also learn lessons from the scandal," Hideyuki Ban (伴英幸), secretary-general of the Japan-based Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, told the Taipei Times.

Since the Japanese scandal was exposed late last months, the close links between state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) and TEPCO has worried Taiwanese anti-nuclear activists.

"The excuse pertaining to Japan's excellence at operating nuclear power plants, which was used by Taipower to persuade the public into accepting nuclear power, does not exist," said Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑) of the Green Citizen Action Alliance.

DPP Legislator Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟) told the Taipei Times that he would soon be working with other lawmakers to demand a full explanation from Taipower.

He wants to know not only about Taipower's relationship with TEPCO, but also what impact the scandal has made on the quality of the new nuclear reactors which are now being installed in Taiwan.

If necessary, Lai said, lawmakers would try to discuss with the Cabinet the possibility of halting construction of the plan until it gets full answers from Taipower.

"Ensuring nuclear safety is more important than meeting the deadline," Lai said.

The controversial nuclear plant, located in Kungliao township (貢寮) of Taipei County, is scheduled to open on July 1, 2006.

Minister Without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) told the Taipei Times that the impact being made on Taiwan by the Japanese scandal deserved further investigation.
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