Orchid Island

Orchid Island is a 45 km² high island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan Island and separated from the Batanes of the Philippines by the Bashi Channel of the Luzon Strait. It is governed as Lanyu Township of Taitung County, Taiwan.The island is home to the Tao, an ethnic minority group who migrated to the island from the Batan Archipelago 800 years ago. The island is known to them as Ponso no Tao "Island of the people" or Irala. Out of a total current population of 4000, approximately 2400 belong to the aboriginal Tao community and the remaining 1600 are mainly Han Chinese. In neighboring Philippines the island is referred to as Botel Tobago.The Lanyu nuclear waste storage facility was built in 1982 without prior consultation with the island's Tao natives. The plant receives nuclear waste from Taiwan's three nuclear power plants operated by state utility Taiwan Power Company (Taipower). About 100,000 barrels of nuclear waste from the nation’s three operational nuclear power plants have been stored at the Lanyu complex. In 2002 and 2012, there were major protests from local residents, calling on Taipower to remove the nuclear waste from the island.HistoryEarly historyThe island was first mapped on Japanese charts as Tabako-shima in the early 17th century and Tabaco Xima on a French map of 1654. The Chinese, who had no contact with the inhabitants of the island, called it Ang-thau-su, from which it was called during Japanese rule. The Japanese government declared the island an ethnological research area off-limits to the public.