The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said that President William Lai (賴清德) should apologize for phasing out nuclear power, as regulators indicated they were close to approving the restart of Taiwan’s last operating reactor less than a year and a half after it went offline.
In a statement, KMT Culture and Communications Committee Director Chen I-hsin (陳以信) said the plans to return the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant to operation showed that Lai’s pledge to achieve a “non-nuclear homeland” by last year without electricity shortages had failed.
Chen said nuclear power was essential to industrial competitiveness, artificial intelligence (AI) development and energy security and that Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) pursuit of Ma-anshan’s reopening vindicated the KMT’s calls for a more pragmatic energy policy.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
In contrast, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) long-standing opposition to nuclear power was a “mistaken policy” that had cost Taiwan, Chen said.
The Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) on Wednesday said that it had completed technical reviews of Taipower’s application to restart Ma-anshan, with approval pending final administrative procedures.
Taipower applied to restart the Ma-anshan and Guosheng nuclear plants in March, after amendments passed in May last year allowed for the licenses of decommissioned reactors to be extended for up to 20 years beyond their original 40-year operating limit.
Later yesterday, DPP caucus chief executive Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) questioned whether Chen would also seek contrition from opposition politicians who campaigned against nuclear power, including New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and Hou’s predecessor, Eric Chu (朱立倫), both former KMT presidential candidates.
Speaking at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan, Chuang said that the DPP’s “nuclear-free homeland” policy reflected public safety concerns when it was adopted.
While rising electricity demand from Taiwan’s booming AI and semiconductor sectors had made a policy review appropriate, Chuang said it was premature to conclude that the government had decided to restart nuclear power.
Chuang said that voters, not political parties, would ultimately decide the issue through a referendum on scrapping the “nuclear-free homeland” policy to be held alongside November’s local elections.
Even if the referendum passes, restarting the Ma-anshan plant would still require clearing multiple regulatory and safety hurdles, including resolving the issue of nuclear waste disposal, he added.
The Ma-anshan power plant, in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春), shut down its last — and Taiwan’s last — active nuclear reactor on May 17 last year.
The Guosheng plant, in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里), shut down and entered decommissioning in March 2023.
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