Let the world see Taiwan! Global citizens unite to fight the anti-nuclear industrial complex
Stand Up for Nuclear is a global movement started by the Nuclear Pride Coalition. At train stations, squares and parks across the world, it tells people about the importance of nuclear power, busting myths spread by anti-nuclear groups. In 2020, all major cities across the globe stage events every September weekend. In Taiwan, the event is held by Climate Vanguards, Mom4nuclear and Nuclear Myth Busters in the square of the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall on September 12.
Jessica Lu, the founder of Mom4nuclear, said that as a mother of two, she never thought she would become a pro-nuclear activist. But when the government dismissed the referendum results, insisted on the phaseout of nuclear power, and used more carbon-intensive natural gas and coal, as well as wind and solar power that begets land speculation and environmental devastation, she decided to do something for energy justice. Her son suffers from asthma, her daughter often has nasal allergies and even female friends who never smoked got lung adenocarcinoma; therefore air quality is ever more concerning to mothers. She joined the petition campaign for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant referendum and founded social groups to promote popular science knowledge about nuclear power. Though she is not a mother good at natural science, she doesn’t think nuclear power is hard to understand. It just needs to be simplified and explained through the lens of ordinary people. If mothers trust science and care about children’s health and global warming, they can easily accept the advantages possessed by nuclear power.
Yang Chia-Fa, the originator of Climate Vanguards, said as a Taipower employee, he knew more about the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, which can be safe and meet safety requirements when completed. With 300 billion NT dollars spent and more than 95% of the project completed, it was an insane decision to scrap the power plant without good reasons offered by the government. Why could the ruler decide to scrap the plant and not unseal it based on their own taste before the people made the decision? He and his partners have been taking pains to promote the referendums to prevent the government from killing nuclear power and to reopen the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant for more than two years. At the same time, he is also eager to spread the news to the world: the Taiwan government’s craziness is compounding human harm to the earth.
Huang Shih-Hsiu, the founder of Nuclear Myth Busters, said that after the 2018 referendum ended in favor of pro-nuclear changes, every country has been paying attention to Taiwan’s nuclear power and democratic development, especially Japan and South Korea, the two neighboring Asian countries. Japan had endured the blast of nuclear bombs and a nuclear disaster, but it still gradually restarted nuclear power plants. South Korea continues to build new nuclear reactors with the consent of citizen deliberation. He and his partners even received an official response letter from the EU, which confirmed that the European Green Deal includes nuclear power and proved the Taiwan Factcheck Center colluded with anti-nuclear scholars to produce fake news intentionally. However, the ruling party and anti-nuclear interest groups control vast amounts of resources, so the NGOs like theirs need to gather more power, big or not, to fight the anti-nuclear vested interests to let the world see Taiwan.
