Taiwan Gears Up for Nuclear Power Referendum

TaiwanPlus News

Supporters and opponents of nuclear power make their case as the question of whether to partially bring back nuclear power goes to voters in a referendum on Aug. 23.

Transcript

00:01Supporters of nuclear power gather on stage to rally public support ahead of an August

00:0723 referendum that could overturn years of energy policy.

00:11The ruling Democratic Progressive Party has gradually shut down the country's nuclear

00:15plants as part of its nuclear-free homeland policy.

00:19But here, members of the opposition Taiwan People's Party are trying to get voters to

00:23bring nuclear power back, at least partially.

00:30The government's industry has changed.

00:34The government's economy has changed.

00:39The government's economy has changed.

00:42The government's economy has changed.

00:46On the ballot is whether to extend the life of the mothballed third nuclear power plant

00:50in the far south of the country.

00:52Among the arguments is strategic.

00:55China claims Taiwan and has threatened to take it by force,

00:58making any reliance on imported fossil fuels a risk.

01:01We don't need to use nuclear power.

01:03The government will want to keep our current energy energy in the future.

01:08Taiwan will not want to make nuclear power.

01:11If we have the foreign forces to hold the sanctions on the foreign border,

01:16we will not provide nuclear power.

01:17If we have the stormtroopers from the other countries,

01:20the nuclear power plant will not be able to provide nuclear power.

01:22hopes that if it wins over enough voters to pass the referendum, two reactors will be

01:26back online in around a year.

01:32But here, an environmentalist, a professor of public health, a former nuclear plant worker,

01:38and even a member of the same safety committee in charge of the plant in question have other

01:42thoughts. They say that after 40 years, the plant may be too old to safely keep running.

01:47There are financial concerns too, with one speaker saying the costly failure to extend

01:53the life of another plant is a lesson Taiwan should learn from.

02:17They have drawn up a list of safety issues that date back to its opening in the early

02:271980s. It includes fires, workers' deaths, and radiation exposure, and pollution. And

02:33there's even skepticism about how trustworthy safety inspections are.

02:37This won't be the last Taiwan's voters hear about the nuclear issue. The Central Election Committee

02:59is planning a series of five TV broadcasts to give both sides their say, with the first scheduled

03:05for Thursday. In a year of political battles, yet another one is about to go critical. Hank

03:11Hsu and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

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