{"id":1152,"date":"2025-08-22T03:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2025-08-22T03:20:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T03:20:33","slug":"taiwan-weighs-return-to-nuclear-power-amid-ai-surge-and-china-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/?p=1152","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan weighs return to nuclear power amid AI surge and China fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=49ce54ce-97f4-4b5f-8c59-d61107548d08\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Taiwan is set to vote on whether to return to nuclear\u00a0energy just three months after shutting down its last reactor, as concern mounts over how to supply enough power to keep its world-leading chip sector growing.<\/p>\n<p>The vote also highlights the country\u2019s challenges in securing stable energy supplies to survive a potential Chinese blockade. <\/p>\n<p>Launched by the two opposition parties, which hold a legislative majority, a referendum on Saturday will ask voters if they support restarting a reactor at the Maanshan plant in southern Taiwan, provided regulators do not find safety concerns. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The vote comes as soaring electricity demand to serve artificial intelligence computing \u2014 just as governments around the world seek to cut carbon emissions \u2014 has prompted a global revival of nuclear energy.<\/p>\n<p>In the US, President Donald Trump is aiming to quadruple nuclear energy capacity in the next 25 years. Germany\u2019s new government appears intent on revisiting the country\u2019s nuclear \u201cexit\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Even Japan is reopening reactors and planning the construction of new ones 14 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.<\/p>\n<p>Many foreign observers have urged Taiwan to follow that trend, arguing that its dependence on imported gas, coal and oil for more than 95 per cent of its energy makes it highly vulnerable to a Chinese blockade. <\/p>\n<p>Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to take it by force if Taipei refuses unification indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnergy is the weakest element in Taiwan\u2019s resilience,\u201d said Mark Cancian at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington, who co-authored a war game last month that simulated a Chinese blockade of Taiwan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaiwan needs to pay special attention to that,\u201d he added, suggesting that it could do so by \u201cextending the life on its existing nuclear power plant and also by hardening its electrical system\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-content-layout\" data-component=\"flourish\" data-component-id=\"24758688\" data-component-type=\"flourish-in-article\">\n<figure class=\"n-content-picture n-content-layout__container\"><picture data-asset-type=\"flourish\" data-flourish-id=\"24758688\" data-flourish-type=\"visualisation\">\n<div id=\"24758688\" class=\"cp-message o-message o-message--inform o-message--notice\" data-o-component=\"o-message\">\n<div class=\"o-message__container\">\n<div class=\"o-message__content\">\n<p class=\"o-message__content-main\">Some content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.flourish.studio%2Fvisualisation%2F24758688%2Fthumbnail%3FcacheBuster%3D975454?source=cp-content-pipeline&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=1020&amp;dpr=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nuclear power generated more than half of Taiwan\u2019s electricity in the 1980s, but in May state-owned utility TaiPower switched off the final of six reactors after its 40-year operating licence expired. That made Taiwan the third country to close all its nuclear power plants, following Italy and Germany.<\/p>\n<p>President Lai Ching-te celebrated the step as historic realisation of his Democratic Progressive party\u2019s decades-long goal of a \u201cnuclear-free homeland\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, he told a DPP meeting that he would oppose the referendum to restart the plant. \u201cWe will vote against it together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>That stance is part of the party\u2019s ideological roots. Fears about Taiwan\u2019s frequent earthquakes and anger that the then-authoritarian government stored nuclear waste on an outlying island without informing its Indigenous population sparked an anti-nuclear movement in the 1980s. These activists were at the heart of the pro-democracy groups from which the DPP emerged.<\/p>\n<p>The 2011 Fukushima disaster broadened public opposition to nuclear power, leading the government to back an exit from the energy source. Two years after the DPP returned to power in 2016, the government started successively shutting down reactors.<\/p>\n<p>But Taiwan has struggled to manage a transition to renewable energy at the same time that it has cut down nuclear capacity. Renewables accounted for only 13 per cent of electricity generation in the first half of this year, far behind the government\u2019s target of 20 per cent. LNG was Taiwan\u2019s biggest source of power generation at 46.2 per cent, followed by coal at 35 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, power demand is soaring on the global AI boom. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world\u2019s largest chipmaker, which already uses 12 per cent of Taiwan\u2019s entire electricity output, is also rapidly expanding capacity. <\/p>\n<p>Power cuts have become more frequent as TaiPower has tried to modernise its ageing grid. To stem the utility\u2019s mounting losses, the government has been raising power prices that were long among the world\u2019s lowest.<\/p>\n<p>Those strains have helped shift public attitudes towards nuclear energy. According to the non-governmental Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (TAISE), 66.1 per cent of Taiwanese now support using nuclear energy to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, up from 58.3 per cent in 2024. Only 33 per cent held environmental concerns over nuclear energy, less than for coal, oil and gas.<\/p>\n<p>While voters have warmed to nuclear power, appetite for extending the lifespan of a 40-year-old reactor is less strong, according to the TAISE. Even Lai has indicated openness to new-generation nuclear power solutions, though he remains opposed to restarting the old plant.<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"9c21155e-b328-4381-a986-03a9e877be3c\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2048\/1152\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"o-teaser__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2F__origami%2Fservice%2Fimage%2Fv2%2Fimages%2Fraw%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%252Fproduction%252F8af789aa-6f46-4687-971d-041e177ecec9.jpg%3Fsource%3Dnext-article%26fit%3Dscale-down%26quality%3Dhighest%26width%3D700%26dpr%3D1?source=next&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;dpr=2&amp;width=240\" alt=\"Montage of images of pro-DPP protesters, a portrait of Chen Ru-fen, and pro-KMT supporters, against a background photo of Taiwanese reservists in combat training\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The result of the referendum will only be valid for two years, however, meaning that even if a majority backs a restart, the government could in effect ignore it, if safety inspections and other procedures exceed that timeline.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast to the international concerns about Taiwan\u2019s energy security, the domestic debate has centred on air pollution and economic growth. \u201cTaiwan has paid a high price for phasing out nuclear,\u201d said Tung Tzu-hsien, the founder of contract electronics manufacturer Pegatron, in a televised debate on the referendum last week.<\/p>\n<p>Tung, who sits on a committee that advises Lai on climate policy, blasted Taipower\u2019s move to restart two coal-fired power plants to plug the power gap as \u201cabsurd\u201d and blamed the DPP for pushing Taiwan to the \u201cbottom of the class\u201d in global carbon emissions.<\/p>\n<p>He also warned that Taiwan\u2019s polluting energy balance could undermine its technology exporters\u2019 competitiveness as major markets start levying carbon taxes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Data visualisation by Haohsiang Ko in Hong Kong<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Taiwan #weighs #return #nuclear #power #surge #China #fears<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Taiwan is set to vote on whether to return to nuclear\u00a0energy just three months after shutting down its last reactor, as concern mounts over how to supply enough power to keep its world-leading chip sector [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[163,782,781,375,780,239,97,779],"class_list":{"0":"post-1152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-fears","10":"tag-nuclear","11":"tag-power","12":"tag-return","13":"tag-surge","14":"tag-taiwan","15":"tag-weighs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}