More than 65 percent of respondents said that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County should be allowed to continue operations, provided authorities have ascertained that there is no safety risk, a poll released by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed yesterday.
A referendum is scheduled for Aug. 23 which would ask voters if they agree that “the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant should continue operations upon approval by the competent authority and confirmation that there are no safety concerns.”
The foundation asked the same question in its poll titled “The Taiwan People’s Attitude on the Third Nuclear Power Plant Referendum.”
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
The poll showed that 38.7 percent of respondents “completely agreed,” 27.7 percent “somewhat agreed,” 11.7 percent “somewhat disagreed” and 10.4 percent “completely disagreed,” while 6.9 percent said they had no opinion and 4.6 percent said they did not know.
Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said the poll highlighted that two-thirds of Taiwanese are in agreement that the power plant should conditionally be allowed to resume operations.
The condition on which the nuclear power plant resumes operations depends on whether the Nuclear Safety Commission agrees that resumption is risk-free, he added.
A breakdown of respondents’ political leanings showed that 46 percent of those who supported the Democratic Progressive Party were in favor of resuming plant operations, while 45 percent were in opposition, underscoring a split in party supporters’ opinions on the issue.
Eighty-seven percent of respondents who supported the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were in favor of restarting the plant, with 7.7 percent disagreeing, while 93 percent of Taiwan People’s Party supporters also expressed agreement, with 3.5 percent disagreeing, the poll showed.
Sixty-four percent of politically neutral or independent respondents supported the resumption of operations, while 16 percent disagreed, the poll showed.
More than half of each age bracket was in support of conditionally resuming operations of the power plant, while there was no significant difference in opinion across education brackets, it showed.
Respondents across all vocations mostly agreed with conditionally resuming operations, while geographically speaking, 66 percent of respondents living in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung area agreed, with only 26 percent opposing, it added.
The poll, held from Monday to Wednesday targeting adults aged 20 or older using dual-frame random sampling through landline and cellphone interviews, received 1,079 valid responses with a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points, the foundation said.
Meanwhile, the Central Election Commission on Thursday held the first of five forums to discuss the upcoming referendum, with the attendees presenting arguments both for and against the proposal. The next one is to be held today at 7pm.
Additional reporting by CNA
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