Anti-nuclear power organizations yesterday launched a campaign to charter buses for northern coast residents to visit and learn about nuclear plants in the area before an annual anti-nuclear power protest in Tiapei on Saturday.
Three “anti-nuclear power” buses are to be offered free of charge in Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung on Saturday morning to take people to three nuclear power plants in coastal areas in New Taipei City before returning to Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the afternoon to join the protest procession, Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance chief executive Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖) said.
Guides on the buses are to introduce passengers to the effects of nuclear plants on local scenery, ecology and communities, as well as local residents’ expectations of how plant sites would be restored and re-utilized when plants are decommissioned, so passengers can bear witness to the sacrifice local residents have made for the nation’s nuclear power development, Kuo said.
“People living on the northeastern coast do not produce nuclear or radioactive waste, but many people who do not live in such regions, and benefit from nuclear power, believe that anti-nuclear protests belong to the northeastern coast. However, dealing with old nuclear plants and radioactive waste is a shared responsibility,” he said.
Kuo called on mayors and legislators in Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Yilan to board the buses and witness the problems first-hand, because those four municipalities are most exposed to the risks posed by nuclear plants.
Campaigners urged the public to participate in the rally, which is to be centered on nuclear waste treatment, as building a nuclear-free nation has become a consensus following years of anti-nuclear movements.
“This year is the most important year for anti-nuclear movements. In the past, the government found every possible way to make people accept its nuclear policy without opening the issue to public discussion. However, radioactive waste is a public responsibility that cannot be dealt with by only a handful of people,” Green Citizen’s Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said.
“President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her future Cabinet must visit the three operating nuclear plants, so they can understand how dangerous those plants are. Spent fuel rod pools there are almost full, which has never been seen anywhere else in the world, making them the most dangerous nuclear plants in the world,” Yilan Charlie Chen Foundation chairman Chen Hsi-nan (陳錫南) said.
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