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Tsai apologizes for
nuclear waste woes
LOCAL SOLUTION: If elected, Tsai pledged to
improve infrastructure on Orchid Island and let residents reach their own
consensus on how to handle the waste there
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter, in TAITUNG COUNTY
Puyuma Aborigines lift Democratic
Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen up during her visit to Aboriginal
groups in Taitung County yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (½²^¤å) yesterday apologized to residents of Orchid
Island (ÄõÀ¬) over the government¡¦s ¡§outrageous¡¨ decision in 1982 to store nuclear
waste on the island, saying that she hoped the waste would eventually be
transferred to an alternative site.
The DPP presidential candidate, who is on a two-day campaign trip to Hualien and
Taitung, also reiterated her initiative to achieve a ¡§nuclear-free homeland¡¨ by
2025.
In her speech, Tsai apologized three times for the decision to build a nuclear
waste disposal facility on the 48km2 volcanic island off the southeastern coast
without prior consultation and communication with its residents, who are mostly
Tao Aborigines ¡X one of the country¡¦s 14 recognized Aboriginal tribes.
¡§I am very sorry that nuclear waste was shipped and stored here in 1982 without
communicating with local residents or the implementation of a democratic
mechanism,¡¨ she told a group of residents in a yard in front of the Ivalino
Presbyterian Church after visiting the disposal facility.
After resistance from residents, shipments of low-level nuclear waste to the
island were suspended in 1996.
Residents should be the ones to decide how the waste is dealt with by coming to
a consensus, possibly through a referendum, she said, adding that the DPP, as a
firm supporter of a nuclear-free nation, prefers the permanent removal of the
waste to an alternative site to be determined in the future.
Tsai pledged to improve infrastructure on the island with projects such as an
airstrip for larger planes and a harbor for sightseeing yachts, and to study the
possibility of the residents taking operational control of compensation funds
paid by Taiwan Power Co.
The DPP¡¦s ¡§2025 Nuclear-Free Homeland Initiative¡¨ aims to phase out nuclear
power by 2025 by decommissioning the three nuclear power plants currently
operational, preventing the commercial operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power
Plant, which is under construction, improving power-generation efficiency and
using alternative energy resources.
While some say nuclear power is cheaper, problems and controversies associated
with storing nuclear waste have added to its social and economic cost and made
it an undesirable form of power generation, Tsai said.
Later, speaking at Kalarulan, a Paiwan Aboriginal community in Taitung City,
Tsai pledged to re-examine the government¡¦s relationship with Aborigines if she
was elected in January.
Her administration would establish a ¡§new partnership¡¨ with Aborigines and do
its best to implement substantial Aboriginal autonomy, which would assure
Aborigines of management rights over their property and fiscal revenues, as well
as rights to operate specific businesses, she said.
¡§Starting from 2012, there will be new partnership between Taiwanese and
Aborigines ... Aborigines are one of the most important elements in Taiwan¡¦s
diverse culture,¡¨ Tsai told more than 100 Kalarulan residents.
Tsai also apologized to the Aborigines for mistreatment and discrimination by
the government in the past when she visited Wushe (ÃúªÀ) in central Taiwan in
July.
She is scheduled to travel through Hualien County today and return to Taipei in
the evening.
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