nuclear energy in Taiwan

DPP Again Suggests Openness to Nuclear Energy

The Lai administration has continued to be strategically ambiguous regarding nuclear energy. In comments to Bloomberg late last month, Premier Cho Jung-tai expressed a willingness to use nuclear energy to meet energy demands for AI. It is expected that Taiwan may play a key role in the growing AI sector, particularly regarding the use of chips, seeing as Taiwan already plays a preeminent role in global semiconductor manufacturing. Cho stated that as long as there was social consensus on nuclear energy, particularly regarding the disposal of nuclear waste, that it was fine to proceed...

KMT Energy Policy for 2024 Elections Leans Into Traditional Stances

The KMT unveiled its energy policy in August. In particular, the plan calls for lowering the percentage of energy from natural gas-fired power plants to 45% by 2030. Hou You-yi, the KMT’s presidential candidate, claims that coal-fired power plants will be phased out by 2040, when 34% of energy will be produced by gas-fired plants. By 2050, renewable energy will be 57% of Taiwan’s energy according to this plant...

Is Hou You-yi Leaning Into Nuclear Advocacy to Pacify the KMT?

KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi has begun to lean into advocacy of nuclear power in the course of campaigning at a time of flagging ratings. Hou currently polls worse than former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, who is the presidential candidate of the TPP and KMT chair Eric Chu has had to fend off rumors that the KMT is considering replacing Hou as its candidate. Hou is calling for restarts of nuclear plants in Shihmen and Guosheng, the highly controversial No. 4 nuclear reactor, and extending the lifespan of the Ma-anshan plant...

Nuclear Energy Reemerges as Contentious Issue Ahead of 2024 Elections

Although it is not likely to become the key issue to be voted on, seeing as presidential elections traditionally revolve around the issue of cross-strait relations, the issue of nuclear energy will be an important substrate of the Taiwanese presidential elections. It proves unsurprising, then, that the issue of nuclear energy has again come up as a contentious issue–as it has long been in Taiwan, given Taiwan’s nature as an island country...

Authoritarian Nostalgia Plays Role in Pan-Blue Nuclear Advocacy

Pan-blue media personality Jaw Shaw-kung, one of the leading figures of the “Fighting Blues” within the KMT, recently took a strong stance against the Tsai administration’s energy transition policy. Jaw criticized the Tsai administration as overly reliant on LNG terminals and instead called for the extension of Reactor No. 2 and Reactor No. 3’s operational lifetimes, as well as the restart of the controversial Lungmen Reactor No. 4. Jaw’s comments are worth examining for how this sheds light upon the pan-Blue camp’s framing of Taiwan’s current energy issues...