Anti-nuclear groups announced that they will hold a “Run Away From Nuclear” event on March 29 in Taipei as they performed a skit yesterday on Ketagalan Boulevard in which they pretended to flee radiation leaked from a nuclear power plant.
With the sound of nuclear alarm sirens in the background, performers wearing radiation suits put radioactive hazard trefoil stickers on signs with Taipei’s famous landmarks drawn on them to signify that all of Taipei could be contaminated if an accident occurred at one of the nuclear power plants in northern Taiwan.
Taiwan has three operational nuclear power plants — the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門), New Taipei City (新北市), Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District (萬里), New Taipei City, and Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Ma-anshan (馬鞍山), Pingtung County.
Photo: CNA
The skit also included a person dressed in a panda costume to mimic the Taipei Zoo’s panda cub Yuan Zai (圓仔) and a person holding a picture of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), with a voice-over saying that even they could not escape from the radiation should an accident happen.
Anti-nuclear Alliance of Fathers convener Liou Gin-show (劉俊秀), a professor at National Chiao Tung University, said that according to his calculation, the occurrence rate of a nuclear disaster is about 1 in 500 — which is higher than the rate of winning NT$200 in the bimonthly Uniform-Invoice Lottery.
“If a nuclear disaster occurs at one of the plants, between 4 million and 5 million people would have to be evacuated from the Greater Taipei area, and that is only based on an evacuation ranging between 20km and 30km from the plants, not to say the 80km radius evacuation zone recommended by the US, and we do not even have the ability to evacuate 4 or 5 million people,” he said.
Anti-nuclear Alliance of Fathers executive director Kobe Chih (池國平) said the group decided to hold a run because fleeing is the first thing people would do in a nuclear accident, but “we also want the government to know that it is impossible to mount an effective response to a disaster when so many people are trying to flee at the same time.”
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union member and National Taiwan University’s atmospheric sciences professor Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉) said Taiwan is not short of power, because electricity generated by nuclear power accounts for only 6 percent of the total power supply, and can be replaced by improving electrical transmission efficiency or energy-conservation measures.
The groups urged the government to retire the three operational nuclear power plants as planned and stop constructing the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City, to provide a safe, nuclear-free living environment for everyone.
The 7km running event will begin at 7am and start from Ketagalan Boulevard.
‘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 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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS