Welcome to Taiwan's nuclear beach

Pack your swimsuit, sunblock and a Geiger counter.

Jonathan AdamsAugust 16, 2009 08:38Updated May 30, 2010 12:03

Tourists frolic at Nanwan beach beside the Taipower's third nuclear power station, which spews cooling water straight into the ocean. Picture taken Apr. 25, 2008. (Pichi Chuang/Reuters)

KENTING, Taiwan — Here on Nanwan Beach, smoke-belching tractors haul jet-skis across the sand. College girls scream in terror at the approach of knee-high wavelets. And the favorite sport of young Taiwanese men? Wet sand fights.

But perhaps the most jarring sight, at least for foreign eyes, here at one of Taiwan's most popular beaches: the twin reactors of the island's Third Nuclear Power Plant.

They loom on the north side of the beach, perched on the edge of this earthquake-prone island, discharging reactor cooling water into an inlet that's popular with coral-peeping snorkelers.

Aren't locals concerned? Hardly.

Or to be more specific, "Bu pa!" (we're not afraid), said scornfully a 50-something woman hawking jet-ski rides at $30 for a half-hour spin.

"Rich people worry about that. Poor people don't," she said. "We're poor." Then, cutting our time-wasting interview short, she added: "So do you want to ride a jet ski or not?"

A 52-year-old parking lot attendant laughed when asked if the plant worries locals. "We're used to it. Anyway, it's already been built, so what can we do?"

The plant went online in 1984. "Back then, we didn't know it can be dangerous," he said. "Now we know." To date, Taiwan has a near spotless nuclear safety record. That means few here fear having their beach time ruined by a meltdown. "Maybe we've just been lucky," the lot attendant added with a laugh.

But he said the beach has changed dramatically since he was a child. Then, coral covered the shallow sea floor. "Now, they're all dead," he said. "I don't know if it's because of global warming or the nuclear plant."

I went up to Taipower's visitor center to get their side of the story. Taipower is the state-run utility that operates the island's three nuclear plants. Nuclear power accounts for about 20 percent of the island's energy generation.