About the conference

About 60 representatives of WiN were present from 11 countries: Argentina, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Sweden, USA and Taiwan. WiN was reported to have 615 members from 39 countries with 19 national groups. The opening session was presided over by Agneta Rising, President of WiN Global. During the session, Agneta Rising was re-elected to a second term as President. The third WiN International Award was given to Shin Young-Soon (President of Women interested in Nuclear in Korea). Also introduced was the idea of organizing regional WiN meetings. The first such meeting was scheduled for May 28-29, 1998 in Bucharest, Romania and would attract WiN members from Central and Eastern Europe. The meeting was devoted to country reports presented by the representatives of all the WiN groups in attendance. The new homepage of WiN, which has been constructed by Emmy Roos, USA, was presented to the members during the lunch break. The panel discussion of ‘Low Level Waste Disposal and Public Attitudes’ was held in the afternoon of the first day.

The panelists were C. S. Lee (Deputy Director of Nuclear Backend Management Dept, Taipower), Shang-Jyh Liu (Professor of National Chiao-Tung University), Corinne Souwer (Consultant of ECO Consult) and Nieves Martin (Redacteur in EdF). The discussion included the selection of LLW sites and the set-up of subsidiary funds for the nearby residents from the viewpoint of achieving a benefit-risk balance between the community and the nuclear industry. Agneta Rising, Martine Griffon-Fouco, Junko Ogawa, Marke Heininen, Corinne Souwer and Nieves Martin were interviewed by local reporters on the afternoon of April 22. During the press conference there was a special interest in the public opinion on nuclear energy in Europe.

The first day was wrapped up with a formal dinner hosted by Chairman C.P. Hu of Atomic Energy Council and Chairman K.C. Liu of PECL.Top managers from the co-sponsoring organizations also attended: S.T. Chiu (FCMA), M.T. Tsai (Taipower), and T. Y. Hsia (INER). On April 24, a roundtable discussion was held on the topic of sustainable development. Professor C.M. Liu presented “Key Issues on Mitigating the C02 Emission in Taiwan”. Marke Heininen introduced “The Finnish Response to Kyoto Framework Convention”. Agneta Rising proposed a WiN position statement, “Energy is life. Nuclear energy is clean air”. Before the roundtable discussion, Commissioner Greta Joy Dicus (USNRC) gave a speech on “Why We Need to Harmonize Radiation Protection Standards”. A guided tour of the National Palace Museum was organized for overseas participants in the afternoon.

Technical and cultural tour

• Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER)
• Plasma Coating Lab, National Primary Standard Lab
• Solidification and Volume Reduction Process and Cyclotron Facility
• Temple of Sansha