Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) yesterday said it would hold a signature drive at the five-day Ho-Hai-Yan Gongliao Rock Festival in New Taipei City (新北市) starting tomorrow in an effort to stop the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant near the rock festival’s venue.
TEPU chairman Lin Wen-yinn (林文印) said the annual rock festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Fulong Beach (福隆海灘) in Gongliao District (貢寮) to enjoy music in beautiful surroundings, but the ongoing construction of a nuclear power plant near to the beach is destroying the environment.
“We hope that visitors who join the rock festival in pursuit of beautiful music and self-expression will also put their passion into the pursuit of a safe and beautiful environment,” he said.
Kao Cheng-yan (高成炎), a professor at National Taiwan University and a former TEPU chairman, said the group had initiated a petition for a local referendum in New Taipei City, asking residents whether fuel rods should be installed to start test operations at the plant.
The petition has already gathered about 12,000 signatures since its launch last summer, Kao said, adding that according to the law, it needs about 15,000 signatures to pass the first phase to petition for a local referendum and about 150,000 signatures for the second phase.
Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association secretary-general Yang Mu-huo (楊木火) said that as a resident, he believed the construction should be halted with or without a referendum, because “the construction of the plant is a total mess.”
In addition, the construction of a pier at the plant has blocked the natural flow of the sand along the beach, draining away the soft sand on the beach, which the government has replaced with impure sand, Yang said, adding that wastewater from the plant would also destroy the marine ecology.
Visitors to the annual rock festival may soon find themselves bathing in warm seawater, or even water contaminated with radioactive waste, when the nuclear power plant starts operating, he said.
The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is not safe because it is a poorly assembled facility being built by Taiwan Power Co, which has no experience building a nuclear power plant by itself, Kao said, adding that more than NT$20 billion (US$66.7 million) on the construction and an additional NT$5 million supplementary budget are planned.
“The total expense of more of than NT$30 billion will be a heavy burden for Taiwan’s young people,” Kao said.
The group hopes to at least stop the additional supplementary budget from gaining approval, he said.
“Sign the referendum petition before you listen to music!” TEPU deputy secretary-general Lee Hsiu-jung (李秀容) said.
A petition booth will be set up at Fulong train station and a speech by the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association will be held at 2:30pm on Thursday.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS