Taiwan's return to nuclear power driven by AI hunger for electricity

For a decade, Taiwan phased out nuclear power, replacing it with natural gas and renewable energy.

Now the government is preparing to reverse course.

Last month, Taiwan's Nuclear Safety Commission said it had finished reviewing plans to restart a nuclear reactor it shut down in May 2025.

Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant in the island's south could resume power generation as early as 2028, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency.

Experts say the change in public sentiment is due to surging electricity demand.

Taiwan's semiconductor and artificial intelligence industries are consuming more power as the government pushes for growth.

But some critics say the Maanshan plant is too small to make a real difference amid the AI boom, and radioactive waste storage and the potential for accidents remain ongoing concerns.

'More pros than cons'

Zhi Hao Hong, 34, believes there are "more pros than cons" and supports nuclear.

"Factories open one after another, which means the demand on power supply is only getting higher," Mr Hong told the ABC.

Tsung-Kuang Yeh, dean of the College of Nuclear Science at Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University, said the shift in public mood toward nuclear power stems from concern over energy security heightened by several power outages.

"We need [a] stable electricity supply for the future, not just for daily living, but also for the local industry development here," Mr Yeh said.

After Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011, he said debate focused on how quickly Taiwan could move away from nuclear power, amid fears about operating reactors in a seismically active area.

Flora Hung-Baesecke, who grew up in Taiwan but now lives in Sydney, said the uncertainty and fear amplified by media coverage made the risks feel more immediate after Fukushima.

"Sometimes, fear of the risk can spread far beyond the original event and affect public attitudes, government policies, industries, and even how people view an entire technology," said Ms Hung-Baesecke, a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at University of Technology Sydney.

Ms Hung-Baesecke believes more people now recognise Taiwan's heavy reliance on imported fuel is a key vulnerability.

She pointed to a referendum last year where about 4.3 million people voted in favour of the plant's reopening, over 1.5 million who voted against.

However, a low overall turnout of voters meant the result was rejected by the Central Election Commission.

Another referendum is set for November to ask whether the government should abolish its Nuclear-Free Homeland policy.

Renewables and storage

Taiwan imports about 96 per cent of its total energy supply, which includes oil and fuel for transport as well as power generation, according to the Energy Administration.

When it comes to electricity generation alone, liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplied about 47 per cent of Taiwan's power last year, coal 35 per cent and renewables 13 per cent, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The government expects electricity demand to grow by about 2.5 per cent a year, driven partly by semiconductors, data centres and AI.

According to Mr Yeh, the government had increased its reliance on LNG for electricity, only for prices to soar after Russia invaded Ukraine.

He said prices spiked again this year because of the conflict between the United States and Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Taiwan missed its target of 20 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2025, with the share reaching just over 13 per cent.

Former president Tsai Ing-wen's government set that target as part of its nuclear-free policy.

Kuang Ling Lim, a campaigner for a grassroots environmental NGO Citizens of the Earth, wants the government to prioritise renewables and storage, but acknowledges both need more infrastructure and grid upgrades.

The gap between Taiwan's renewable ambitions and its electricity demand is contributing to growing support for nuclear power to be rebooted, said James Liao, a research fellow at Academia Sinica, a national academy in Taipei.

"Nuclear has a low carbon footprint and doesn't produce as much carbon dioxide compared to coal, so I think young people are pragmatic and realists with the available options. We can't reject nuclear power," he said.

"But that's not to say we don't promote renewables too,"

he added.

Safety and waste

Despite rising support, key concerns about nuclear safety and waste remain.

The Maanshan nuclear plant would produce two types of radioactive waste: spent nuclear fuel and low-level waste, which is less hazardous.

In the past, Taiwan's nuclear power plants stored spent fuel and waste on-site.

Low-level radioactive waste was also sent to Orchid Island, also known as Lanyu. This was halted in 1996 after protests over a lack of local Indigenous consent, but the waste is still there.

Taipower, the state-owned electricity utility, said last year that indoor dry storage at Maanshan would be ready as early as 2031.

Ms Lim said that doesn't solve the problem and was "only an intermediate solution".

Mr Yeh said new technology such as fast-neutron reactors, which is not yet widely commercial, could eventually help.

"Gen IV reactors with fast neutrons to trigger fission reactions in nuclear fuel are able to further exploit spent nuclear fuel rods to generate electricity," he said.

"When commercial fast reactors are available, we may use the spent fuels that are now stored on site,"

Mr Yeh said.

Taipower did not reply to a request for comment about what safety improvements are underway at Maanshan.

However, Mr Yeh said safety guidelines had improved since Fukushima and Taiwan's reactors have been fitted with additional equipment designed to respond to a Fukushima-type accident.

Will nuclear make a difference?

Taiwan once had three nuclear power stations: Chinshan, Kuosheng and Maanshan, each with two reactors, that contributed some 15 per cent of the island's electricity.

The Chinshan plant was ruled out for reactivation because the facility is too deteriorated, and Kuosheng faces fuel removal challenges.

Benjamin Pei-Wei Yang, a researcher at the Taiwan Climate Action Network, believes that there are limits to what a restart of the Maanshan nuclear plant can achieve.

"Even if we do restart them, they're not going to contribute that much towards the growth," he said, pointing out that it supplied about 4 per cent to 5 per cent of total electricity generation before closing last year, citing Energy Administration figures.

But Mr Yeh disagrees.

"We need this 5 per cent key power to make up the insufficient difference to help stabilise the grid," he said.

Taipei-based clean energy advocate Angelica Oung backs a restart, and argues the problem runs deeper than any single plant.

"I think energy in Taiwan has been chronically mismanaged and as a result we don't really have many good options," she said.

"It's a no-brainer to restart as many nuclear power reactors as we can."

Ms Oung argues energy shortages are limiting Taiwan's future and ambitions.

"If we had more power, we could build more data centres," she said.