AN ANALYSIS OF TAIWAN’S QUEST TO BUILD A NUCLEAR SOCIETY AS A STRATEGY TO ADDRESS ISSUES OF STATE LEGITIMACY by Yeng-Chieh Tsai A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Energy and Environmental Policy Summer 2017 Copyright 2017 Yeng-Chieh Tsai All Rights Reserved AN ANALYSIS OF TAIWAN’S QUEST TO BUILD A NUCLEAR SOCIETY AS A STRATEGY TO ADDRESS ISSUES OF STATE LEGITIMACY by Yeng-Chieh Tsai Approved: __________________________________________________________ John Byrne, Ph.D. Professor in charge of the dissertation on behalf of Advisory Committee Approved: __________________________________________________________ S. Ismat Shah, Ph.D. Interim Director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Program Approved: __________________________________________________________ Babatunde Ogunnaike, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the College of Engineering Approved: __________________________________________________________ Ann L. Ardis, Ph.D. Senior Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ John Byrne, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Young-Doo Wang, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Shih-Jung Hsu, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ M.V. Ramana, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It was a great experience for me to enrich and broaden my perspectives in energy and environmental study at the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP). I was benefited from the excellent and inspiring lectures and discussions in the classes, and discussions with CEEP colleagues. I am so happy to join CEEP, a cultural and scholarly diverse, as well as friendly, community. In particular, I would like to thank my committee for their guidance and insightful comments for this dissertation. Most of all, I am deeply grateful to Prof. John Byrne for his invaluable advices and encouragement throughout my research. With his patience, experiences and knowledge, he helped me out of many straits in my academic journey. His teaching and counsel were essential to the development of my conceptual framework. I also want to thank Prof. Shih-jung Hsu and Prof. Hsin-hsun Huang. Without them, I would not even know CEEP. It is their concern and enthusiasm about society and environment that encourage me to join to this research field. Their suggestions and support are indispensable to the accomplishment of my dissertation. My heartfelt appreciation also goes out to Prof. M.V. Ramana. This research owes a debt to his insights and suggestions. Last but not least, I am very thankful to Prof. Young-Doo Wang for championing CEEP’s interest in international research. His suggestions on the methodology of the dissertation are invaluable. In addition to the committee, there are many friends and colleagues in CEEP who have to be acknowledged for their warm friendship and support making this dissertation possible. First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my Taiwanese friends at UD, Oliver Hsu, Michelle Liu, Katty Chen, and Hsin-hsun Huang. Without them, I can never come to this stage. Many thanks are also due to many of my iv colleagues at CEEP, Job Taminiau, Jeongseok Seo, and Joohee Lee, for their friendship and intellectual encouragement. I would also like to thank Prof. Kathleen Saul for editing my writing. Prof. Saul did not merely facilitate me to meet the academic requirement, a great constraint to a foreign student like me; I also learned so much from her. Special gratitude is also extended to Prof. Hwong-wen Ma at the National Taiwan University. He helped me to overcome many difficulties and inconvenience in collecting documents and related information by allowing me to join his research team. Finally, I wish to offer my sincere thanks to my family for their support, trust and encouragement for all these years. They have always been the source of my strength and courage in my life. Dedicated to my parents, Kung-sung Tsai and Li-li Chen v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................ xi ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. xii Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 Legitimation Crisis and the Birth of Taiwan’s Nuclear Power Strategy ... 3 1.2 Overview of Nuclear Power Development in Taiwan ............................... 5 1.3 The Modern State and Risk: A Theoretical Overview............................... 6 1.3.1 The Ideology of Progress and Nuclear Power ............................... 9 1.3.2 Taiwan’s Legitimacy Problem and Nuclear Risk Society ........... 12 1.4 Analytical Framework ............................................................................. 14 1.5 Research Mehods ..................................................................................... 18 1.6 Outline of Chapters .................................................................................. 18 2 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK ...................................................................... 21 2.1 The Legitimacy of Taiwan’s Political Authority and Nuclear Power ..... 26 2.1.1 The Empiricist Approach to Legitimacy ..................................... 26 2.1.2 The Normative Approach to Legitimacy ..................................... 28 2.2 Habermasian Analysis of Modern Legitimacy ........................................ 32 2.2.1 The Crises in the Modern State.................................................... 33 2.2.2 ‘Systemically Distorted Communication’ in the Modern State ... 36 2.3 Risk Society and the Legitimacy Problem ............................................... 42 2.3.1 Risk Society ................................................................................. 44 2.3.2 Risk Society and State Legitimacy .............................................. 47 2.4 Analytical Framework for Analyzing Taiwan’s Legitimacy Problem and Pursuit of Nuclear Power .................................................................. 55 3 THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR POWER IN TAIWAN .................... 62 vi 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 62 3.2 Legitimacy Problem and the Birth of Nuclear Power in Taiwan ............. 63 3.3 Nuclear Politics in Taiwan: From 1979 to 2014 ..................................... 67 3.3.1 Nuclear Politics in Taiwan (1979-1987) ...................................... 68 3.3.2 Nuclear Politics in Taiwan (1988-2008) ...................................... 74 3.3.3 Nuclear Politics in Taiwan (2009-2014) ...................................... 88 3.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 93 4 NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS IN TAIWAN ........................................................ 101 4.1 Introduction: The Nuclear Accidents in Taiwan .................................... 101 4.2 Non-Operational Nuclear Accidents in Taiwan ....................................... 97 4.2.1 Nuclear Waste Disposal and Indigenous Peoples ........................ 97 4.2.2 Waste Metals and Radioactive Buildings .................................. 105 4.2.3 Nuclear Accidents Related to the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research ..................................................................................... 113 4.3 Accidents at Nuclear Power Plants ........................................................ 115 4.3.1 Accidents at Existing Nuclear complexes: 1980s-May 2014 .... 115 4.3.2 Accidents at Existing Nuclear complexes: Mid-2014 -2016 ..... 121 4.3.3 The Unfinished Fourth Nuclear complex before May 2014l ..... 123 4.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 126 5 THE ANTI-NUCLEAR MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN .................................... 129 5.1 Introduction The Anti-nuclear Movement in Taiwan ............................ 130 5.2 Taiwan’s Anti-nuclear Movement, Phase I (1987-2000) ...................... 123 5.3 Taiwan’s Anti-nuclear Movement, Phase II (2001-2010) ....................