Thousands of people marched through the streets of Taipei to call for an end to nuclear power in Taiwan on the eve of the anniversary of President Ma Ying-jeou’s second inauguration.
The demonstrators demanded a nuclear-free country and an immediate stop to the construction of a fourth nuclear power plant in New Taipei city’s Gongliao district, a densely populated area in the north east of the island, The Nikkei reports.
They also demanded the government amend the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act to allow residents living within 50 kilometers of a nuclear plant the right to decide whether it operates.
“We are extremely disappointed that the government has no regard for the threat that nuclear power poses to human life,” Kao Cheng-yan, a former chairman of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, which organized the protest, told the Taipei Times.
“We believe that there is only one Taiwan, that people’s lives are invaluable and that there are other viable energy resource options,” he said.
Sunday’s protest comes a day before the first anniversary of President Ma’s second-term inauguration. Ma will spend Monday conducting an “energy tour” in central Taiwan and will visit a windmill and the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, according to the Presidential Office.
