An assembly of civic groups yesterday gathered in front of New Taipei City Hall to announce the launch of a signature event aimed at soliciting the support of New Taipei City mayoral and councilor candidates for a timely decommission of nuclear power plants in accordance with dates outlined by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower).
The signature event was jointly launched by eight groups, including the Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance, the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, Citizen of the Earth and the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association.
In a joint statement, the groups referenced an order issued by the Executive Yuan in 2011 that said the decommission of the nation’s three operational power plants — Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant and Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in the Shihmen (石門) and Wanli (萬里) districts in New Taipei City; and Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Ma-anshan (馬鞍山), Pingtung County — would not be delayed.
Photo: Chen Wei-tsung, Taipei Times
However, the Atomic Energy Council earlier this year received a Taipower request to renew its license to operate the Jinshan plant for 20 more years after its scheduled decommission in July 2019, the groups said.
In doing so, the government has failed to deliver on its promise, they added.
The request could be approved as soon as June next year, which would pose a grave threat to the safety of more than 3 million residents living in or near New Taipei City, they said.
Quoting New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) in March last year: “If the problem of nuclear waste disposal cannot be resolved, what right do we have to use nuclear energy?” Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance chief executive Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖) called on Chu, other mayoral candidates and about 120 city councilor candidates to take part in the signature event and voice their support for the timely decommission of the nuclear plants in New Taipei City.
Kuo said the Jinshan plant’s first reactor, which has the capacity to store 3,083 bundles of fuel rods, has only enough space for about 100 more bundles and Taipower has not yet retrieved all the spent fuel rods stored in the reactor’s fuel pool.
He also expressed doubt over the Ministry of Economic Affairs plan to ship spent fuel rods overseas, saying that he suspects the move is aimed at delaying the decommission dates for the Jinshan and Guosheng plants.
Referencing a scene in Fukushima: Memories of the Lost Landscape, a documentary on the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in which Minamisoma City Councilor Tanaka Kyoko was staying at a shelter because her home had been rendered uninhabitable by nuclear pollution, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association attorney Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) said that if a nuclear meltdown took place in New Taipei City, not only residents, but also the mayor and city councilors would be affected.
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