Public perceptions and the nuclear waste repository on Orchid Island, Taiwan

Abstract

This paper examines public perceptions of the nuclear waste repository on Orchid Island, Taiwan and how differing perceived risk and knowledge of nuclear waste might relate to worldviews, culture and social experiences. The majority of the aboriginal Yami groups' perceptions of the impacts of the nuclear waste repository contrast sharply with the Taiwanese migrants' view on technology and environmental problems. Elderly Yami tend to regard nuclear waste as “evil ghosts.” At the same time, ambivalence and expressions of uncertainty about the risk prevail amongst Yami employed by Taipower (Taiwan Power Company), the generator of these evil ghosts. For many of the Taiwanese migrants, theYami's invariable objection to the nuclear waste repository is shaped by an exclusionary attitude toward anything foreign—i.e., a tribal resistance to the dominant Taiwanese society. The disputes over the nuclear waste repository reflect not just the Yami's fear of risk, but also the complexity of political and social relationships.