Following the first anniversary of the Tokaimura nuclear accident in Japan on Sept. 30, Japanese anti-nuclear activists accompanied by Taiwanese legislators highlighted the dangers of nuclear plants yesterday in Taipei by releasing updated information on the accident.
Speaking through a translator Theodore Kay (
"The Japanese people were told that the probability of such an accident was pretty low, but it still happened," said Ban, adding that it had caused two deaths in the past year and left 310,000 residents within 10km of the reprocessing plant living with nuclear fallout.
Ban said that the residents had organized an association to seek compensation from the Japanese government by following a precedent set in the aftermath of the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.
New Party legislator Josephine Chu (
KMT legislator Jao Yung-ching (
Since this type of reactor has already been the source of problems in Japan, Jao argued, Premier Tang should consider alternatives, including renewable sources of energy, such as solar energy and wind power.
In the book published by the CNIC, Criticality Accident at Tokaimura: 1mg of uranium that shattered Japan's nuclear myth, CNIC activists reveal the hidden dangers of nuclear plants, which they claim are seldom addressed by government agencies and suppliers of nuclear power.
"Criticality," according to the report, occurs when "a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining."
The accident at the reprocessing plant operated by the JCO Co in central Japan on Sept. 30, 1999, is now regarded as Japan's worst nuclear accident and the world's worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
"The potential dangers could be far more serious because about three million times the amount of uranium that caused last year's accident is still being processed at the plant," said Ban.
Ban also said that he was "astonished" by what he observed at nuclear power plants in Taiwan because "safety was simply ignored."
"At the Second Nuclear Power Plant (
Ban said that nuclear waste could be very dangerous and that a serious fire occurred at Tokaimura in 1997 when workers mixed nuclear waste with asphalt.
Pan Han-chiang (
"The nuclear industry in Japan could be revived by this purchase. Further exports will increase nuclear risks in other countries," said Pan.
Pan said that Japanese activists had expressed their concern over exports by their nuclear industry because they could "become the source of another atrocity similar to those committed by the Japanese during World War II."
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS