Day #127: Nuclear Energy

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Following the fight in Taiwanese Parliament over the building of a fourth nuclear power station in Taiwan (which made international news), the topic is much on everyone's minds. All the Taiwanese I have spoken to are very anti nuclear power (though this is a skewed demographic, since those I have met are generally being under 35, and mostly either students or recent graduates, and staying in hostels), though I have witnessed foreigners shrug their shoulders and as what alternative the Taiwanese have, given the lack of feasible alternatives (it is said that in the next few years Taiwan will start to see power outages due to a lack of available energy). The arguments for and against nuclear power are the same used the world over, but in Taiwan people feel especially passionate because of the Fukushima nuclear accident.

I was surprised when I first came to Taiwan by how many Taiwanese I have met here who say they would not consider visiting Japan because of their fears of nuclear contamination following Fukushima - that's the whole of Japan they will not go to, not just the Fukushima area. I have met a number of South Korean travellers who have said the same - some who said they came to Taiwan as an alternative to Japan, which they would otherwise have visited but now considered out of the question. This is not something that would have occurred to me and I don't know how much scientific evidence there is that radioactivity throughout Japan is at dangerous levels, but it is an interesting cultural phenomenon and certainly has had a huge impact on attitudes towards nuclear power here.

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