Taiwan's Anti-Nuclear Movement after Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Two years after Fukushima nuclear disaster, the revitalized anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan has gained an unprecedented momentum. On 9 March 2013, 220 thousands citizens attended demonstrations in four cities. The turnout has shown a great leap in two years. In Taipei, the number of protesters has grown from 5 thousand in 2011 to 120 thousand in 2013. The activists are no longer limited to the veteran campaigners but include many new faces such as young people and various celebrities. However, living in a small island country with three nuclear powers plants in operation and the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (NPP4) under construction, plus sharing similar geographic conditions with Japan, Taiwanese people seem to belatedly response to great nuclear risk. Besides, although the anti-nuclear veterans are advocate of a hard-line stand for nuclear-free policy, a certain amount of the protesters in 2013 demonstrations claim that they are ‘not anti-nuclear but anti-NPP4 only’. This divergence has never been found in the three-decade-old anti-nuclear movement. How can we explain the revitalization of Taiwan’s anti-nuclear movement after Fukushima disaster? Why does the stand for ‘Anti-NPP4 only’ appear? It seems that the accidents and problems newly discovered in the nuclear power plants and the political responses from the government and Taiwan Power Co. also play a role in stimulating or cutting back the movement. The paper will, first, explore the formation and strategies of the movement in order to understand how the movements gain its strength and challenge the nuclear-addicted government. Second, the authors will focus on why certain groups have focused on the goal of stopping the construction of NPP4 while some other organizations have made efforts to develop discourses to compete for the legitimacy over no-nuclear energy policy, energy democracy and alternative development. Finally, some predicaments of current movement will be discussed.