TAIPEI (CNA for China Post/ANN)) – A local anti-nuclear coalition yesterday announced a plan to hold simultaneous parades in Taipei and Kaohsiung on April 27 to commemorate the Chernobyl disaster of 33 years ago.
The parades will also be aimed at promoting two anti-nuclear referendum proposals, said the National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform (NNAAP), which represents 126 anti-nuclear groups around Taiwan.
Unlike anti-nuclear parades of previous years, which have been scheduled for March to commemorate the March 11, 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, April’s parades will instead commemorate the Chernobyl disaster, NNAAP spokesperson Tsui Shu-hsin (崔愫欣) said at a press event.
The Chernobyl disaster, which occurred in Ukraine April 25-26, 1986, was the worst nuclear accident of the 20th century and the parade will be aimed at evoking people’s awareness of the dangers of nuclear power, Tsui said.
Both parades will feature exhibitions about Taiwan’s renewable energy development and the current situation at Fukushima, Citizen of the Earth Taiwan consultant Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) said.
The NNAAP said the parades will promote two anti-nuclear referendum proposals to counter rising support for nuclear power after a pro-nuclear referendum was passed last November.
One of the referendum proposals will ask voters if they agree that until a repository for high-level radioactive waste is built and operational, no building, expanding, continued construction or extending the lifespan of nuclear power plants will be allowed, the NNAAP said.
The second proposal will ask voters if they agree with abolishing the fourth nuclear power plant project and turning the plant into either a museum, research facility, tourist attraction or a base for developing renewable energy, the NNAAP said.
The NNAAP added that it will present the first proposal next week after collecting enough petition signatures, while the second proposal has already been presented to the Central Election Commission (CEC) for initial screening.
According to the Referendum Act, the number of petition signatures required to propose a referendum cannot be less than 0.01 percent of the total electorate in the most recent presidential election. Based on the 14th presidential election in 2016, this represents at least 1,879 required signatures.
In November 2018, Taiwanese voters rejected the government’s phase-out of nuclear power in a referendum that asked voters if they agree to abolish paragraph 1 of Article 95 of the Electricity Act, which stipulates that “all nuclear energy-based power-generating facilities shall completely cease operations by 2025.” However, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said in late January that Taiwan will not extend the lives of existing nuclear power plants, nor will it resume construction of the fourth nuclear power plant, citing opposition from local governments and the difficulties presented by the disposal of nuclear waste.
