Taiwan authorities calm down public nuclear fears
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Taiwan Environmental Protection Union and some organizations raised a parade in Taipei on Sunday to protest against Taiwan authorities' plan to prolong working life of the three nukes and oppose building the fourth one.
Some 1,000 strong people wearing various non-nuke banners and flags gathered at a gate of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall at downtown, although some of them used the nuke issue to criticize the authorities' other practices.
Fukushima's radioactive leakage has made some parts of Taiwan' s public nervous about three operating nuclear power plants in the island which have run safely amid many quakes in the past 20 years.
Chen Liang-pu, a local university student, said that not to extend the nuclear plants' working life is not enough, however, the authorities should rethink and adjust the structure of energy supply.
The three operating nuclear power plants in Taiwan supply about 20 percent of the total electricity power to the island. Taiwan' s thermal power plants contribute about 70 percent.
"We must find more alternate power supply for Taiwan to maintain a green and sustainable development," the student said.
Taiwan authorities have repeatedly soothed the public that all the operating nuke plants in the island are safe and well-built which could resist considerable scale of quakes and tsunami.
During a tour to the No. 2 nuclear power plant of Taiwan Power Company at the northeast coast, the company' s chairman Edward K.M.Chen told Xinhua that Taiwan's three nuclear plants, capable of withstanding 10-meter high tsunami, have better emergency power supply system and cooling system than Fukushima's plant.
Wu Den-yih, chief of Taiwan' s executive authorities, asked the company to explain their security preparations to the public in a more simple and understandable approach rather than scientific jargons.
The official also pledged that the authorities would build up more radioactive observatory stations in the seas off Taiwan's coast line in addition to 30 such stations on the island.
"We should always keep awe to the nature since no one could promise a 100 percent secure in the disaster," Edward K.M. Chen said, "we hope for the best and prepare for the worst."
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