Protesters rally in Taipei against bills to extend life of nuclear power plants

Taipei, April 27 (CNA) More than 300 people gathered outside the Legislature in Taipei on Saturday in protest against a series of bills put forth by opposition lawmakers to extend the service life of Taiwan's nuclear power plants.

Wei Yang (魏揚), a researcher at Taiwan Climate Action Network, said at the rally that one of the reasons for opposing the bills is the danger posed by three of Taiwan's nuclear power plants -- Chinshan, Kuosheng, and Ma-Anshan -- that are sitting on active fault lines.

Earthquakes can trigger a nuclear accident and jeopardize public safety, he said, noting that frequent quakes have been occurring since a magnitude 7.2 temblor struck Taiwan on April 3.

The series of law amendments put forth by the Kuomintang (KMT) legislative caucus seek to extend the service life of the three power plants, even as the Chinshan and Kuosheng plants are in the decommission phase.

At Saturday's protest, Wei called out Taiwan People's Party (TPP) caucus convener Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for his "ambivalent" stance on the KMT-sponsored bills, pointing out that Huang had an earlier record of opposition to the use of nuclear power in Taiwan.

Also speaking at the rally, environmentalist Tsui Su-hsin (崔愫欣) said that since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan during a 2011 earthquake, there has been a "social consensus" in Taiwan on phasing out nuclear energy.

The KMT caucus' proposals to extend the service life of Taiwan's nuclear power plants is therefore unbelievable, Tsui said.

She noted that an online petition launched by an alliance of 96 civic groups against the bills has garnered the support of more than 1,000 people.

If opposition lawmakers disregard public opinion and attempt to push through the bills, civic groups will stage a bigger protest, encircling the Legislature, Tsui said.

Saturday's rally, which drew about 300 people, was held on the 10th anniversary of a massive sit-in on Zhongxiao West Road outside Taipei Main Station, which called on the government to suspend the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. After the peaceful protest in 2014 by some 50,000 people, then-Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) announced the next day that work on the plant would be halted.