Nuclear-Free Dream Recedes Amid Inter-Branch Conflict

On 14 February, in a statement in which he spoke of a "painful choice" and his "undying determination," Premier Chang Chun-hsiung announced the resumption of work on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, and identified the passing of a plebiscite law as the most important topic for renewed cross-party consultation. He also responded positively to the Legislative Yuan's indication of its support for the goal of a "nuclear-free homeland." With the words: "Developments over the coming ten months will decide Taiwan's fate for the next 10,000 years," Chang hinted that the next stage in the antinuclear campaign will be a decisive factor in the Legislative Yuan elections scheduled for the end of the year.

The same day, the cabinet approved the plan to resume construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, and announced that it would formulate a plan for the phased closure and decommissioning of the three existing nuclear plants, on condition that adequate electricity generating capacity is maintained. The Executive Yuan would invite a wide range of environmentalist groups and individuals to join a "Nuclear-Free Homeland Guidance Committee" to actively educate the public. At the cabinet meeting, economic affairs minister Lin Hsin-yi stressed that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project would be completed on time in July 2005.

After the decision to resume work on the plant, legislator Chao Yung-ching said he had never seen another example of a government which on the one hand stressed its desire for a "nuclear-free homeland," but on the other still finally went ahead with building a nuclear power plant. On 24 February the Nuclear-Free Country Action Alliance, a coalition of over 100 antinuclear groups, staged a demonstration to call for a plebiscite on the project, to "let the people decide." Leading Democratic Progressive party figures such as former party chairmen Lin I-hsiung and Yao Chia-wen, and former secretary-general Chang Chun-hung, took part in the rally.

The saga of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant began in 1980, when TaiPower first proposed the project. But following the worldwide shock at the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, the Legislative Yuan froze the project's budget. Since the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association was set up in 1988, it and other groups have also fought a running battle with the government over the plant. The Control Yuan ordered major corrective measures regarding the project three times in 1999 alone, finding that the construction permit was improperly issued, that the environmental impact assessment was made on an incorrect basis, and that proper provision had not been made for safeguarding a Ketagalan aboriginal archaeological site. These instances are taken as proof by antinuclear groups of the illegality surrounding the project.

Energy policy suggestions

KMT chairman Lien Chan proposed to President Chen Shui-bian the drafting of a "National Energy Development Statute," based on considerations of national energy supply and demand. In view of projections that in 2005 northern Taiwan will have a shortfall of close to 2,100 megawatts, construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should continue, but no further nuclear plants would be built, and the first, second and third plants would be decommissioned on reaching the end of their normal operating lives. But before that the 11 private power stations already approved for construction should be completed as quickly as possible, and if 2,000 megawatts of substitute generating capacity could be completed, the three older nuclear plants could be decommissioned early. Lien also expressed the opinion that when formulating its overall energy policy, the new government should give consideration to various factors, including environmental impact and Taiwan's international reputation.

However, with the resumption of work on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, the people of Kungliao Rural Township have nothing to show for more than a decade of protest. Not only do they feel that they have never had an opportunity for equal dialogue with the government, but also that the fishing grounds on which local fishermen have relied for generations will soon be threatened with major environmental degradation.

According to the research report A Survey of the Natural and Ecological Resources of the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area by Cheng Ming-hsiu, an associate research fellow at the Academia Sinica's Institute of Zoology, species recorded in the sea off the scenic area include 182 corals, 168 crustaceans, 318 mollusks, 57 echinoderms, 60 large seaweeds, over 290 shellfish and more than 100 other marine organisms such as sponges, sea anemones, jellyfish, polychaetes and sea squirts. This shows that Yenliao Bay really is one of northern Taiwan's major marine habitats, and is also one of the places in northern Taiwan where a coastal ecosystem has been preserved relatively undamaged.

Ecological disaster

After work on the plant resumes, there will be neither an immediate nuclear risk nor an immediate benefit of power generation. But environmentalists are convinced that the marine habitat of Yenliao, lying within a marine resource conservation area immensely rich in both the number of species and their populations, will be devastated, and that the three-kilometer golden beach of fine quartz sand which runs from Yenliao to Fulung, one of the priceless ecological and tourist resources of the northeast coast, may be lost along with it.

Following the Amorgos oil spill, we saw the public and the military working hard to scoop up bucket after bucket of oil. But what should our mood be when it comes to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant's impact on the sea off Kungliao?

Chen Po-chih, chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, is one of the cabinet ministers who take the clearest stand against nuclear power. He stated on 14 February that he once made a risk assessment for nuclear power in Taiwan, taking into consideration the island's population density, its level of nuclear technology and its level of economic development, and concluded that it was not worth the risk. But since it would appear from public opinion polls that the majority in Taiwan believe that for economic reasons the plant should still be built, he could only hope that construction standards will be strictly adhered to, and that no accident will ever occur at the plant. Government, opposition and the public at large, apart from closely monitoring the plant's construction, can only pray together with Chen that the people's choice today will turn out for the good of their children and grandchildren.

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The 24 February antinuclear rally brought thousands of Taiwanese onto the streets to protest the decision to resume construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, and to call for a plebiscite to "let the people decide" the project's future. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)