Local religious groups declared their unity yesterday against nuclear power ahead of the first anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami off northeast Japan, calling for a nuclear-free Taiwan.
Representatives of Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Daoist communities urged the central government to abolish its nuclear policy, saying that the nuclear disaster in Japan should remind people of the calamities that could arise when humans attempt to overpower nature.
“We cannot accept even the lowest nuclear risks because human lives cannot be put at risk,” Shih Chao-hwei (釋昭慧), a Buddhist priest and founder of the Buddhist Hongshi College, told a press conference.
“The government should immediately shut down the three existing nuclear plants, suspend the construction of the fourth plant and develop clean energy to guarantee the sustainable use of energy in Taiwan,” said Ng Tiat-gan (黃哲彥), a pastor and official from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.
“We shouldn’t be selfish and insist on using nuclear power without thinking about the consequences it could have on our offspring,” added Ng, who lived for a year in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, where the damaged nuclear power plant is located.
Ismail Wang (王夢龍), executive secretary of the Taipei Grand Mosque, said Islam supports the positive use of nuclear technology, such as medicine, but is against its use in areas such as nuclear power or weapons.
Also calling for a nuclear-free homeland were Imam Ishaq al-Ibrahimi Ma (馬超興) of the Chinese Muslim Association, Pusin Tali (布興.大立), a pastor and president of the Yu-Shan Theological College and Seminary, and Lee Yu-kun (李游坤), a priest from the Zheng Yi Taoist sect.
The religious officials said with Taiwan’s limited land and dense population it would not be able to endure a nuclear disaster.
In the wake of the disasters in Japan last year, civic and environmental groups around Taiwan have been stepping up calls to suspend the operations of the nation’s nuclear power plants.
The religious officials urged people of all beliefs to participate in anti-nuclear rallies on Sunday — the anniversary of the Japan disasters — to voice their rejection of nuclear power.
Taiwan Power Co, operator of the nuclear plants in Taiwan, said recently that it was improving its equipment at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), and has arranged for foreign experts to help it identify problems during its trial operation period.
The state-run company has also said that if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant could provide a steady supply of power by 2015, the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門), New Taipei City, could be closed down two years ahead of schedule.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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