Around the Chinese New Year season in 1991, the Yami people rose up in protests which caught the attention of the media and public in all of Taiwan. Led by Kuo JIan-ping, a Yami Presbyterian missionary, and with the support of anti-nuclear groups in Taiwan like the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union and the Green Association, the Yami anti-nuclear group held demonstrations on Orchid Island and in Taipei, where they carried a protest letter straight to the Taiwan Power Company. (3). The Yami protest letter contained three requests: 1) the expansion of the second phase of construction on the waste site be stopped; 2) the immediate stoppage of transport of nuclear waste from Taiwan to the Orchid Island storage site; 3) by June 30, 1991, the shutdown of the storage site. Their first request was met, although there are likely other factors involved besides the protests. But the peration of the storage site continued despite the opposition. |
The Tao have been fighting to remove nuclear waste for 30 years but the waste still remains. Located a two-hour ferry ride from Taiwan’s southeast coast, Orchid Island — known locally as Lanyu — houses nearly 100,000 barrels of nuclear waste.
| Name of conflict: | Nuclear waste in Orchid island, Taiwan |
| Country: | Taiwan |
| State or province: | Orchid island (Lanyu) |
| Accuracy of location | MEDIUM (Regional level) |
| Type of conflict. 1st level: | Nuclear |
| Specific commodities: | Nuclear waste Uranium |
| Project details | Since 1991, the Tao have been fighting to remove the nuclear waste but the site and the waste still remain. Located a two-hour ferry ride from Taiwan’s southeast coast, Orchid Island — known locally as Lanyu — houses nearly 100,000 barrels of radioactive waste from power plants on the mainland of Taiwan. It serves as a sore point of contention among the indigenous Tao towards the Taiwanese government (4). |
| Type of population | Rural |
| Affected Population: | 5,000 |
| Start of the conflict: | 1991 |
| Company names or state enterprises: | Taiwan Power Company (Taipower ) from Taiwan |
| Relevant government actors: | President of Taiwan Government of Taiwan Cabinet-level Atomic Energy Council (AEC) |
| Environmental justice organizations (and other supporters) and their websites, if available: | Lanyu Youth Action Alliance Council of Indigenous Peoples (Taiwan) Survival International WISE |
| Intensity | MEDIUM (street protests, visible mobilization) |
| Reaction stage | In REACTION to the implementation (during construction or operation) |
| Groups mobilizing: | Indigenous groups or traditional communities International ejos Local ejos Ethnically/racially discriminated groups Tao (or Yami) indigenous people |
| Forms of mobilization: | Development of a network/collective action Development of alternative proposals Involvement of national and international NGOs Media based activism/alternative media Street protest/marches Refusal of compensation In 2002, almost 2,000 protesters, including many aboriginal residents of Taiwan's Orchid Island staged a sit-in in front of the storage plant, calling on Taipower to remove nuclear waste from the island. They were also protesting against the government's failure to keep its pledge to withdraw 100,000 barrels of low-level nuclear waste from their isle by the end of 2002. 15 years later, the Tao youth Young Aborigines on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) protested for a clear deadline for the removal of nuclear waste from the island. Raising flags on the island, the campaigners said they would not accept an apology from the government and would not accept further delays for removal of the waste material. |
| Environmental Impacts | Visible: Other Environmental impacts |
| Other Environmental impacts | Risk of nuclear radiation |
| Health Impacts | Visible: Exposure to unknown or uncertain complex risks (radiation, etc…) Potential: Occupational disease and accidents, Other environmental related diseases |
| Socio-economical Impacts | Potential: Militarization and increased police presence, Violations of human rights, Land dispossession, Loss of landscape/sense of place |
| Project Status | In operation |
| Conflict outcome / response: | Compensation Negotiated alternative solution Under negotiation |
| Proposal and development of alternatives: | Removal of the nuclear waste. Young Aborigines on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) in 2017 protested for a clear deadline for the removal of nuclear waste from the island. Raising flags on the island, the campaigners said they would not accept an apology from the government and would not accept further delays for removal of the waste material. The Orchid Island Youth Movement Alliance, which organized the protest, said that since President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) apology last year (2016) to Aborigines for historical injustices, no action has yet been taken on the issue of nuclear waste on Orchid Island — where more than 90 percent of residents are Tao. The Lanyu nuclear waste storage facility was built in 1982 and stopped processing nuclear waste in 1996. In February 2017, the government reiterated its promise to relocate waste on the island and panned several potential sites including uninhabited islands near Keelung, as well as Kinmen, Penghu and Matsu counties. Chanting slogans outside the waste facility, campaigners demanded that the government take concrete action and clarify a timetable for when waste relocation would be completed. “We are not interested in empty promises or in talking things over,” one campaigner said. (5). |
| Do you consider this an environmental justice success? Was environmental justice served?: | Not Sure |
| Briefly explain: | By 2016, President Tsai apologized to the nation’s indigenous peoples in a formal speech at the Presidential Palace August 1, 2016. In the speech, the president made specific reference to the Tao (Yami) people of Orchid Island (Lanyu), and apologized for the fact that a nuclear waste facility was constructed on their island without their knowledge or approval. |
| References to published books, academic articles, movies or published documentaries |
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| Contributor: | JMA |
| Last update | 18/08/2019 |
| Conflict ID: | 3593 |