Taipei: When Taiwan's last active nuclear reactor at the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant was shut down on May 17, 2025, Taiwan officially became a "non-nuclear homeland," a longtime goal of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The DPP had pledged since its founding in 1986 to phase out nuclear power, a stance often regarded as one of its core tenets alongside the pursuit of Taiwan's formal independence.
According to Focus Taiwan, less than a year after achieving the goal, President Lai Ching-te of the DPP reversed course. On March 21, Lai announced that the government and state-run utility Taiwan Power Co. had initiated a process that could lead to restarting not only the Maanshan plant but also the No. 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Wanli District in New Taipei. Lai's policy change stunned environmental groups, long a key pillar of support for a "non-nuclear homeland," but there has otherwise been little political fallout from within his own party.
Scholars were split on whether the reversal was justified, but there was a sense the DPP has shifted, if cautiously, toward favoring the use of nuclear power. In presenting the new approach, Lai cited rising electricity demand driven by AI development, the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, and growing geopolitical risks as reasons for a change in policy while affirming his ongoing support for rolling out green energy.
Chang Chun-hao, a political scientist at Tunghai University, described Lai's moves as a "huge U-turn" driven by real-world constraints. Chang said Taiwan's heavy reliance on imported energy, which accounted for 95.8 percent of total supply in 2024, had made the issue increasingly pressing, particularly amid global instability. Though some have said the United States exerted pressure on the DPP government to back nuclear energy, Chang said there was no evidence of that. He believed the shift was better seen in light of Taiwan's structural energy challenges.
Chao Chia-wei, research director of the Taiwan Climate Action Network (TCAN), disagreed, arguing that nuclear power offered limited benefits to Taiwan's energy resilience. He pointed to developing renewable energy, expanding natural gas storage capacity from the current 11 days to 24 days, and focusing on demand-side management as more effective solutions. Chao estimated that if the government could meet its goal of producing 30 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030, it would boost renewable power generation to 100 billion kWh a year, up from 37.8 billion kWh in 2025.
In 2025, natural gas already accounted for 47.8 percent of Taiwan's electricity mix, coal 35.4 percent, and renewables about 13.1 percent, well short of the DPP's 20 percent target, according to Energy Administration figures. The No. 2 and No. 3 nuclear plants would each account for about 5.5 percent of Taiwan's electricity generation if restarted. Chao also contended that "the No. 3 Nuclear Power Plant cannot be restarted by 2030," meaning it would be of no help in the near future, and that continued expansion of renewable energy could help bring down electricity costs.