Representatives of the indigenous Tao people from Orchid Island held a news conference in Taipei Nov. 30, accusing the government of exposing the Tao to radiation from its nuclear waste facility and demanding an immediate policy review.
Orchid Island, off Taiwan’s southeast coast, has served as a nuclear waste repository since 1982. A law governing the search for a new storage site was passed in 2006, but with no new site yet determined, the island, also known as Lanyu, remains the disposal site for waste from Taiwan’s three nuclear power plants.
“For the past three decades, my people have had to live with the fear of radiation,” said Sinan Mavivo, a Tao activist, adding that cancer has become the No. 1 cause of death for Lanyu residents in recent years.
“We demand that locals be part of the monitoring crew and that the government conduct health checks for all residents,” she said. Sinan Mavivo recently became a Green Party Taiwan at-large legislative candidate, vowing to oppose the development of nuclear power in Taiwan.
The news conference followed the recent release of a study that said signs of possible leakage of radioactive materials were detected outside the disposal facility.
The report, released at a symposium in Taipei Nov. 26, said radionuclides of cobalt-60 and cesium-137 were detected at 6.5 Becquerel per kilogram (Bq/kg) and 32.9 Bq/kg, respectively. Though both figures are lower than the safety standards allowed by Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council, scholars said leakage is definitely a problem.
The study was conducted by Huh Chih-an, a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Earth Science, and commissioned by state-run Taiwan Power Co., which operates the nuclear power plants.
Huh’s report stated that no leakage of cobalt-60 had been detected before 2009, but is now increasing, while levels of cesium-137 outside the storage plant are also rising.
According to Peter Chang, a professor of public health at Taipei Medical University, cesium-137 was already detected at several spots on the island 10 years ago. “A comprehensive inspection by a third party is necessary,” he said.
Lee Chin-shan, director of Taipower’s nuclear waste management department, said the appearance of cobalt-60 was probably related to radioactive dust from the company’s inspection and replacement of storage barrels, beginning four years ago and completed last week.
Lee said the company will clean up the storage site following the repackaging operations and step up efforts to monitor and prevent leakage.
