SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Environmental Justice and Public Participation: A Case Study of Nuclear Waste Management and Policy in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper is an investigation into the public participation of Taiwan’s policy on nuclear waste disposal, concentrating on the ways in which dumping sites have been chosen, and on the wider implications of those choices. The central aim was to examine whether this policy breached the distributive and procedural principles of environmental justice by discriminating against disadvantaged areas and minority ethnic groups. However, in our case study of politics of nuclear waste, procedural injustice and distributive injustice are often situated within more general injustices issues such as economic injustice, political injustice, and cultural injustice. The paper first clarifies the meaning of environmental justice including the more general injustices issues which existing in the politics of nuclear waste such as economic, political and cultural injustices. Secondly, the paper applies the principles of environmental justice to the case study of Taiwan’s decision in 2009 that Da-Ren in Taitung County and Wang-An in Penghu County were its two favoured potential sites for the final disposal repository of radioactive waste. The findings of the research suggest that the Taiwan government and the nuclear power provider, Taipower, both failed to fulfil the requirements of environmental justice in reaching this decision.