00:00Lanyu, or Orchid Island, has been home to the indigenous Dao people for thousands of
00:09years.
00:10This is the field I inherited from my parents.
00:15Shaman Umrush and this island have been at the heart of Taiwan's nuclear debate since
00:20the 80s, when the government built a nuclear wayside here.
00:24As the local school principal, Shaman Umrush maintains the rage.
00:28Once we learned it was a nuclear waste, we started protesting.
00:33It has been nearly 40 years now.
00:37For almost 40 years, we kept asking the government to remove the storage site, but the officials
00:41kept delaying.
00:43The waste stored here is low-level, but investigations have found it's been badly managed, potentially
00:49exposing workers to high levels of radiation.
00:53If the nuclear waste stays in Lanyu, it will continue to impact the environment.
00:59It will also impact the roots of the plants and the habits of the animals.
01:04But the electricity company, Tai Power, says radiation around the dump is within safe limits.
01:10The ABC came here more than a decade ago, in the years following the 2011 Fukushima
01:16disaster in Japan, as fears about nuclear grew here in Taiwan.
01:21Since then, a new government has decided to phase out all nuclear power, even so the local
01:27fight about the nuclear waste dump here remains.
01:30But getting rid of nuclear energy creates a completely different set of problems.
01:35To take all that power you expected off the grid, it's left everything just really, really
01:41tight.
01:42In the past four years, there have been three major blackouts across Taiwan.
01:47That should be absolutely unacceptable, especially in a country where there's so much high-tech.
01:53And that makes it a problem not just for Taiwan, but for the world.
01:58This island makes more than 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductor chips.
02:03The wafers carved by light inside that silicon.
02:10A shortage of chips during COVID had worldwide consequences for new cars, phones and other
02:15technology.
02:16The semiconductor industry is an absolute monster when it comes to consuming electricity.
02:23Just one company, TSMC, in 2021, used 6.4% of Taiwan's grid.
02:3297% of Taiwan's energy sources are imported from uranium to coal and gas.
02:38Taiwanese people are well aware how vulnerable they are to a blockade or even invasion by
02:43China.
02:45Energy transition is a must, but we can't rush suspending the last nuclear power plant.
02:52If you want to stay competitive on the international stage and attract more foreign investments
02:57into Taiwan, the issue of electricity supply must be resolved.
03:02I think Taiwan needs to do more work on how to push more renewable energy and to make
03:11them integrated into the grid.
03:13Recent polling shows about 57% of Taiwanese people support nuclear power.
03:19Meanwhile, the electricity company Taipower is still figuring out what to do with Taiwan's
03:25nuclear waste.
03:26It says it will decide on a permanent storage location by 2038.
03:33If everyone can think more about rational use of energy, I think it will be better for
03:37the earth.
Comments