Reacting to an ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan, a group of academics has launched a petition calling on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration and the nation’s political parties to take nuclear safety seriously.
In their petition, which was announced yesterday, academics ask for an explicit timetable for the enactment of regulations stipulated in Article 23 of the Basic Environmental Act (環境基本法), which says: “The government should draft plans for the gradual accomplishment of building a -nuclear-free nation.”
However, former Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) minister Winston Dang (陳重信) said the Article had been in place for nine years without any sign of the government trying to establish a nuclear-free nation.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
Dang said Taiwan was a high-risk area for earthquakes, strong winds and rain, and therefore could not avoid the risks of a nuclear catastrophe.
Evergreen Group chairman Chang Yung-fa (張榮發) on Wednesday voiced a similar view.
“The safety of nuclear power is a myth,” Chang said, adding that nuclear power plants built three decades ago also did not take global warming into consideration.
Dang also said that he was worried the nation would not be able to withstand a multiple disaster such as the one that struck Japan following the powerful earthquake and tsunami that hit on March 11, sparking a series of problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, said the government’s policies were “heading in the wrong direction.”
The Ma administration’s decision to extend the service time of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant not only ignored international standards, but is also against the law, Chan said.
Although the petition is primarily focused on the academic, it is set to expand to environmental protection organizations, Chan said, adding that even the corporate sector had expressed approval of a nuclear-free nation.
Chan said the petition included the signature of Lin Jun-yi (林俊義), another former EPA minister.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Deputy Secretary-General Liu Chien-hsin (劉建忻) said the academics’ idea of a nuclear-free nation dovetailed with the DPP’s agenda and added that rational talks on how to implement a -nuclear-free nation should be held as soon as possible.
Tsai Ing-Wen (蔡英文), a DPP candidate for the party’s nomination for next year’s presidential election, unveiled her plan last week for achieving a nuclear-free nation by 2025.
Former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), also a candidate for the DPP nomination, said the DPP’s notion of nuclear-free nation was correct, though he would not commit to a timetable.
The third DPP candidate, former party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良), has said a referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, currently under construction in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), is also a viable solution.
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