Antinuclear

Taiwan 100 academics take to the streets, opposing nuclear power

Academics take to the streets against nuclear generation, Taipei Times, 25 April 14  By Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter About 100 academics yesterday staged a silent march from Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building to Gikong Presbyterian Church, where former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin Yi-xiong (林義雄) has been on a hunger strike since Tuesday, to urge the government to give up nuclear energy.

“Nuclear power is the most negative product of capitalism and imperialism, it’s a disaster for the disadvantaged,” said Cheng Fei-wen (鄭斐文), an associate professor of sociology at Tung Hai University. “When nuclear disaster occurs, it is the poor, the aged and children who will suffer the most. Even today, the Tao people on Orchid Island still suffer from nuclear waste storage,” he added.

National Chung Cheng University professor Chen Ruey-lin (陳瑞麟) said Taiwan was located in the so-called “Ring of Fire,” where frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

“I don’t think Taiwan is qualified to use nuclear energy,” he added…………

Taiwan Association of University Professors president Lu Chung-chin (呂忠津), who teaches electrical engineering at National Tsing Hua University, said the government should not continue to threaten the public by saying that there may be a power shortage without the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

“It would be better if the government could use this critical time to develop a green energy system for our future,” he said.

The group marched in silence to the church after tying yellow ribbons with the slogan: “Stop the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant; return the power to the people” on police barricades that barred them from getting close to the Presidential Office Building…….http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/04/26/2003588934

April 26, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized