About 10,000 protesters nationwide are expected to take to the streets today — the first anniversary of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami disaster — to demand that the government scrap plans for ongoing nuclear plant construction.
Organizers said yesterday that the “Bidding Farewell to Nuclear Power Parade” is being held to commemorate the tragedy of the magnitude 9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that caused the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to fail, plunging Japan into the worst nuclear crisis in its history.
Amid global concerns over nuclear safety, the parade will also build on local momentum created at April’s successful “Sunflower No Nuke Action,” in which more than 16,000 people across Taiwan participated.
“We want the world to never forget the hard lessons it has learned,” said Tsui Su-hsin (崔傃欣), a spokeswoman for the organizers.
According to Tsui, the protests are scheduled to take place in Taipei, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung, where about 100 civic groups will urge the government to decommission the existing three nuclear power plants as soon as possible and stop construction of the fourth nuclear plant in Wanli (萬里), New Taipei City (新北市).
Protesters will also call on the government to implement energy-saving policies and remove the radioactive nuclear waste stored on Lanyu (蘭嶼, also known as Orchid Island) off the coast of southeastern Taiwan, she said.
The planned simultaneous protests suggest that the state-run Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) safety checks do not seem good enough to quell the unease among members of the public.
The company said on Friday it had finished a comprehensive safety assessment of the country’s four nuclear power plants, with some machines and areas which were not due to be checked having been examined as well.
“With the approach of the first anniversary of the Japanese nuclear crisis, we’d like to assure the public that our plants are safe,” said Tsai Fuh-feng, director of Taipower’s Department of Nuclear Generation.
Besides regular checks, the three operating nuclear power plants and the one under construction all passed stress tests, which are required in European countries, he said.
Although there are still some parts of the plants that need reinforcement, Tsai said all the plants are “safe enough to counter a devastating disaster similar to the one that happened in Japan.”
After the March 11 incident in Japan last year, Taipower reviewed its safety procedures and came up with an “ultimate response guideline” specially tailored for Taiwan, to cope with similar compound disasters, Tsai said.
Following the guideline, the company can respond immediately and take critical action within an hour after a disaster, he added.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS