TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan will vote Saturday on whether to restart the shuttered Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant, as soaring demand from its chip sector and fears of a Chinese blockade drive debate over the nation’s energy future, The Financial Times reported Friday.
The referendum, initiated by the opposition KMT and TPP, asks voters if they support bringing one of Maanshan plant’s 40-year-old reactors back online provided regulators deem it safe. The move comes as the plant was decommissioned just a few months ago, in a push backed by the DPP.
The vote reflects a global rethink of nuclear energy. Governments from Washington to Berlin are reconsidering the role of reactors as AI drives up power needs and the push to cut carbon emissions intensifies. Even Japan is reopening plants and planning new ones more than a decade after the Fukushima disaster.
For Taiwan, the issue carries extra urgency. More than 95% of its energy comes from imported fuel, leaving it highly vulnerable to a blockade by China. “Energy is the weakest element in Taiwan’s resilience,” commented Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who co-authored a recent war game simulating a Chinese cutoff.
Nuclear once dominated Taiwan’s energy production, generating over half of its power in the 1980s. But in May, state utility Taipower shut down the last of six reactors after its 40-year licence expired, completing a DPP pledge to create a “nuclear-free homeland.”
President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has vowed to oppose the referendum, framing it as a matter of principle for the DPP. The party’s roots trace back to anti-nuclear activism in the 1980s, when fears of earthquakes and anger over waste storage on Indigenous land fueled a broader pro-democracy movement. Public opposition hardened further after Fukushima in 2011.
Yet Taiwan’s energy transition has faltered. Renewables supplied only 13% of power in the first half of this year, well below the government’s 20% target. Liquefied natural gas accounted for 46%, coal 35%, and nuclear zero. Meanwhile, electricity demand continues to climb as TSMC expands production, already consuming 12% of the island’s entire output.
Aging grid infrastructure has led to more frequent blackouts, while rising fuel costs have forced the government to raise power prices. These strains have shifted public opinion. A poll by the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy Research found 66% now support nuclear energy as part of Taiwan’s net-zero strategy, up sharply from last year.
Still, enthusiasm for restarting old reactors remains muted. Even Lai has signaled openness to newer nuclear technologies but not Maanshan’s revival. Even if Saturday’s referendum passes, its result will only be valid for two years, meaning safety reviews and bureaucratic delays could effectively nullify it.
Business leaders have chimed in on the debate. Pegatron founder Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) warned that reliance on coal and gas could saddle exporters with higher carbon costs abroad.
“Taiwan has paid a high price for phasing out nuclear,” Tung said in a televised debate, blasting the DPP for pushing Taiwan to the “bottom of the class” on emissions.
