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Tao protest against
nuclear facility
A GENTLE REMINDER: About 500 people attended the
protest and called on Taipower to immediately remove all the nuclear waste
stored on Lanyu
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter, in Lanyu
Tao Aborigines protest in front
of a nuclear waste storage facility on Lanyu, also known as Orchid Island,
yesterday.
Photo: Chang Tsun-wei, Taipei Times
Hundreds of Tao Aborigines living on Lanyu
(蘭嶼), also known as Orchid Island, yesterday held a protest outside the Lanyu
nuclear waste storage facility, calling on Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) to
remove nuclear waste from the island as soon as possible.
Clenching their fists as they stared straight ahead with angry faces and shouted
in low-pitched voices, the Tao, in traditional dress, performed a ritual to
drive away evil spirits near Longmen Harbor, the debarking point for nuclear
waste from Taiwan proper and where yesterday’s march against the storage of
nuclear waste on the island began.
Despite stormy weather, about 500 people from the island’s six villages marched
along Lanyu’s west and east coasts, before the two groups joined together for a
rally in front of the storage facility.
“We love Lanyu! Nuclear waste, out!” the marchers shouted.
“It’s been 30 years [since nuclear waste was first stored on Lanyu] and we’ve
had enough,” Lanyu Township Councilor Sinan Kamatahen told the crowd.
“Because of the nuclear waste, the health of we Tao people has been
deteriorating. We’re worried that, soon, the already disadvantaged Tao people
are going to disappear from the face of the Earth,” she said.
“If President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) really cares about Aborigines, he should be
more serious about listening to what we have to say, and so should Taipower,”
she said. “It’s a matter of life and death for us.”
Since 1982, when the storage facility was completed, about 98,700 barrels of
nuclear waste from the nation’s three operational nuclear power plants have been
stored at the Lanyu complex.
While Lanyu residents have long protested against the facility, they have become
more concerned following the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power
plant last year.
A report released in November last year that said a radioactive leak had been
detected outside the facility also added to residents’ concerns.
“Taipower has always told us that it’s completely safe, but how do they explain
the high cancer rate since the facility was built?” Sinan Kamatahen asked.
“There’s been too much deception, we want the truth.”
Medical records show that in the three decades since the facility began
operating, the number of cancer patients has been rising. However, there has
been no official investigation into the impact of the facility on residents’
health.
Chang Hai-yu, a preacher at a local church, said it was a tragedy that Tao
children are being born into a radiation-filled environment.
Lanyu Township Mayor Chiang To-li (江多利) urged Taipower to remove nuclear waste
from the island as soon as possible.
“We protested here 10 years ago and we’re back again today because what Taipower
promised us has not yet been fulfilled,” Chiang said. “We’re here again,
pleading for the health and life of all Lanyu residents.”
Chiang was referring to a Taipower promise to remove all nuclear waste by 2016.
In response to the protest, Lee Ching-shan (李清山), director of Taipower’s nuclear
back-end management department, said the company was sincere about its promise,
but that it was a complicated process.
“Ten years ago, we promised to remove the nuclear waste and to check all the
nuclear waste barrels,” Lee said. “We completed the barrel check in November and
we’re actively searching for a new storage site.”
At the time of the pledge, Taipower said it would find a new site for a nuclear
waste storage facility within five years after a set of regulations regarding
site selection was adopted by the legislature. It also said it would finish
building the facility within five years and the moving process within another
four years.
“So far, we’ve had some candidate sites, but referendums by locals are yet to be
held to make the final decision,” Lee said. “We’re working hard to fulfill our
promise, but I have to say that, because of various delays, we may not be able
to make it by 2016.”
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