Native Taiwanese Demand Removal Of Nuclear Waste From Scenic Island

CIVIL NUCLEAR

1,400 Nuclear Reactors Built In World, 57% For Military Use
Paris (AFP) April 29, 2002 - Some 1,400 nuclear reactors have been built since 1954, 57 percent of which have been used to produce energy for military vessels, an independent French defense think tank announced Monday.

The other 43 percent of the reactors -- 571 of 1,338 -- have served "the cause of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): reserving the atom for peace," according to the Observatory for French Nuclear Arms.

Some 220 missile-launching submarines, 250 attack submarines, 10 aircraft carriers and 14 cruisers once had nuclear reactors on board, noted the observatory, which is part of a larger defense information center.

"Today, the five major nuclear powers (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) have between them 245 military nuclear reactors on 182 warships," it said, calling the vessels "floating nuclear plants".

The organization noted world concern about the secure dismantling of Russian nuclear-powered submarines, but said equal attention should be paid to the storage and treatment of nuclear waste in Britain, France and the United States.

by Sam Yeh
Lanyu (AFP) Apr 30, 2002
Hundreds of native Taiwanese plan to hold a protest Wednesday demanding the government remove tens of thousands of barrels of low-radiation nuclear waste from their island.

The protestors from the Yami tribe, backed by conservationists and lawmakers, say they will march to the storage site owned by the state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) on Orchid Island, 44 kilometers (26.4 miles) off the southeastern county of Taitung.

Taipower has stored low-radiation nuclear waste at the scenic spot since 1982, but the indigenous islanders say the government and company must honour their promises to shift the waste.

"Our homeland will remain a wasteland if the nuclear waste continues to stay," a protest organiser, Li Chin-mei, told AFP on Tuesday.

She alleged that several members of the tribe -- one of many that had the run of Taiwan before the immigration of mainland Chinese centuries ago -- had been diagnosed with cancer linked to the nuclear waste.

"If we do not get any positive official response, we may also blockade the storage site," Li warned.

She vowed the protestors would remain at the site until May 20 -- President Chen Shui-bian's first anniversary in power -- if the government fails to honour Chen's manifesto pledge to remove the waste.

Taipower had promised to move the 97,000 barrels of waste before the end of this year, but says it cannot act yet.

"Taipower may not be able to give a clear answer as we have yet to find a suitable venue to establish a permanent dumping site," a Taipower official said.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun apologized to the Yami tribe earlier this month for failing to keep the promise.

Taipower wants a permanent dump on Wuchiu, an island off China's southeastern province of Fujian, where it says up to 160,000 barrels of low-radiation waste could be stored.

The plan is strongly opposed by Wuchiu residents and by Beijing.

Since its first nuclear power plant started operations in 1987, Taipower's three nuclear plants have generated 180,000 drums of low-radiation waste.

Taipower had agreed in 1997 with North Korea that the communist state would store the waste, but the plan was dropped after pressure from South Korea and international conservationists.

Taipower has also been in talks with Russia and the Marshall Islands, a Pacific state, to set up an overseas nuclear waste disposal ground.

The nuclear power debate has intensified in Taiwan in recent years.

In October 2000, President Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) halted building work on a nuclear plant without consulting parliament, as required by Taiwan's constitution, triggering a major political crisis.

The DPP, which had promised to scrap the project in its campaign manifesto, eventually reinstated it in February last year, but parliament also compromised by pledging to eventually make Taiwan a nuclear-free island.

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CIVIL NUCLEAR

Russia Risks Chernobyl-Type Accident At Any Time: Greenpeace

Moscow (AFP) Apr 24, 2002
A nuclear catastrophe could happen in Russia "at any moment" because of poor safety at atomic installations, Greenpeace said Wednesday on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.

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