Taiwan Church News

3392 Edition

February 27 - March 5, 2017

Church Ministry

A National Parade Asking Government To Speed Up At Closing Nuclear Power Plants Is To Launch Across Taiwan On March 11

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

Though Tsai Ing-wen administration promised to abolish all nuclear power plants before 2025, Taiwan's centralgovernment's ability to solve the problems, like when will the old nuclear power plants be halted, how to handle those nuclear wastes, how the glaring delay of renewable energy can catch up, and etc, are quite lack of people's trust and confidence, according to a national anti-nuclear platform: Stop Nukes Now.

In order to ask the government to speed up their anti-nukes policy and deliver a substantial agenda, a national parade, organized by Stop Nukes Now and entitled as "No Nuke, Low Carbon, And Sustainable Energy", is going to be held on March 11 across Taiwan urging the Taiwanese people to take to the streets and give pressure to Tsai Ing-wen administration to fulfill her campaign promise and show the political will to meet the people's demand.

Mr Wu Wen-jang, leader of Yanliao Anti Nukes Self Saving Union, expressed his grave worry that Taiwan PowerCompany's fourth nuclear power plant had already ceased its previous enclosure status and entered into its scheduled budget of maintenance. And the status quo of the fourth nuclear power plant is no different from an actual nuclear operation, Wu said, adding that the government should speed up her evaluation and planning of halting this nuclear power plant as soon as possible.

Mr Kuo Ching-ling, chief executive of Northern Coastal Anti-Nukes Action Front, pointed out that Taiwan's anti-nuclear movement had achieved some preliminary success, though, the tough issues are to execute the halt of the first and the second nuclear power plant and safely deal with their nuclear wastes. And the government should waste no time to submit their solutions for the public to check, Mr Kuo remarked.

Regarding the renewable energy, Ms Yang Shun-mei, general secretary of Mom Loves Taiwan, was very skeptical about howTaiwan can reach a target of 25% in 2025, based on the latest statistics of utilizing renewable energy in Taiwan is only 4%. "To reach the goal of 25% renewable energy within 8 years, i.e. from 2017 - 2025, it makes everyone quite wary how can it be done if there is no publicized agenda and practical plans?", Ms Yang asked.

Translated by Peter Wolfe