Taiwan Church News

3301 Edition

June 1 - 7, 2015

Church Ministry

Anti-Nuclear And Environmental Groups Protest Taiwan's Nuclear Waste Export

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

On May 28, in front of the HQ of Taiwan Power Company(TPC), a press conference was held by some anti-nuclear and environmental groups, protesting TPC's opaque, lying and illegal international bid to reprocess 1,200 bundles of highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods overseas.

Due to the absence of any public hearing or open debates in Taiwan society, before the decision to call such international bid on TPC website, this perverse international bid is absolutely opaque.

According to DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin, "[TPC] tried to slip in information about the plan[international bid to reprocess nuclear waste] in its budget proposal this year by including it in the same package as existing plans on nuclear waste disposal", she said this behavior was lying to the congress.

As TPC's international bid slyly intended to avoid the necessary legal procedures of budget review by the congress, it also breached the Budget Act.

The anti-nuclear and environmental activists, therefore, urged the Economics Committee of the Legislative Yuan cannot overlook such brutal contempt of the congress.Before the budget of "Nuclear Backend Fund" is passed with a deliberate review by the congress, this international bid to reprocess nuclear waste should not be held, they said.

As the project of exporting these nuclear waste would cost Taiwan tax payers an alarming NT$ 11.257 billions, adding that these nuclear fuel rods still have to be sent back to Taiwan after 20 years' reprocessing overseas, it means there is no final solution to Taiwan's problem of how to safely resolve these nuclear wastes.

Even all the budgetary and legal problems could be solved by Taiwan government and the congress, the safety during transportation of these nuclear wastes could still be a big problem as the inhabitants and environments along the transportation routes would be exposed to the risks of the nuclear contamination.

Another potential impact of Taiwan's exporting nuclear waste could go against or exacerbate current global agreement to stop proliferation of nuclear weapons, as the main elements of nuclear weapons, uranium and plutonium, are still extractable from these highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods. And Taiwan might incur a notorious bad name or even international punishment due to export these nuclear wastes.

According to Green Citizen Action Alliance, TPC is very likely to sign up with a French company - AREVA - to reprocess Taiwan's nuclear waste. As AREVA had no new customers in the past 10 years and her facilities is said quite outmoded, TPC's contract given to AREVA might bring crisis to the nuclear safety of both Taiwan and France. In addition, AREVA has been rumored to be bankrupt among the international media for quite a period of time, it really doesn't make any sense to pour NT$ 11.257 billions into such a bottomless black hole, said the anti-nuclear activists.

Translated by Peter Wolfe