Upset about a NT$14 billion (US$485.5 million) budget to continue construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), that was passed by the legislature on Monday, anti--nuclear protesters yesterday rallied in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to demand a referendum on the matter.
The rally organizer, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU), said the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was a patchwork design assembled by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), and could threaten the health of people living in Taiwan.
TEPU attempted to submit a petition to the legislature yesterday, asking for the decision to allow operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to be decided by public referendum, “but they won’t let us inside,” TEPU secretary-general Lee Cho-han (李卓翰) said.
Photo: CNA
“Protesting against nuclear power isn’t just about saving people in Taiwan, it’s also about saving the Earth,” Green Party Taiwan spokesperson Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said, adding that “people asked me why we don’t protest against the many nuclear power plants along China’s coastlines ... but we are not the same nation, so we can only control what’s happening in Taiwan and monitor our legislators.”
After protesters were blocked from submitting the petition or entering the Legislature Yuan by shield-wielding police, who lined up behind the closed gates, the protest organizer, a former TEPU chairman and professor at National Taiwan University, Kao Cheng-yan (高成炎), tried to climb the front gate of the legislature, causing a brief scuffle between protesters and police.
Kao said that the public paid for construction of the Legislative Yuan and lawmakers’ salaries, so they should be allowed to enter the legislature to submit their petitions instead of being shut out.
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