Lai Opens Door to Taiwan Nuclear Restart as AI Demand Reshapes Energy Plans

Three conditions stand between Taiwan and a nuclear restart

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has backed a professional assessment of bringing nuclear power back, setting three conditions: reactor safety, a solution for nuclear waste and public consensus. His comments come as Taiwan Power Co. prepares inspections that could eventually return the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County to service.

In an interview with financial programme host Yu Ting-hao broadcast on October 16, 2026, Lai said Taiwan should keep every energy option open rather than exclude sources for ideological reasons. He also said environmental sustainability should take priority over immediate benefits.

The next steps are more concrete than the political debate alone suggests. On September 24, the Nuclear Safety Commission approved Taipower's plan for bringing Ma-anshan back into operation after three review rounds and 589 comments. Taipower must now complete checks covering ageing equipment, radiation and earthquake resistance before returning to the regulator for further review and inspections.

Economics Minister Kung Ming-hsin has identified 2028 as the earliest possible restart. The commission has set no date. A dispute over whether a separate environmental impact assessment is required could also affect the licensing process.

Lai presented public agreement as a condition alongside technical approval. Explaining what the government would do after safety and waste questions were addressed, the president said:

If there is consensus, we will restart. If not, of course we will wait for advanced nuclear energy.

The position opens a possible route back to nuclear generation less than two years after Taiwan shut its last operating reactor. It also puts electricity planning at the centre of Lai's ambitions for artificial intelligence, industrial growth and trade.

How Taiwan reached this turning point

The Democratic Progressive Party made a nuclear phaseout a central policy after taking power in 2016. Lai, who served as premier from September 2017 to January 2019, supported expanding generation from natural gas and opposed extending the operating lives of active nuclear plants.

Ma-anshan's second reactor stopped operating on May 17, 2025, completing the phaseout. Taiwan's last reactor shutdown ended nearly five decades of nuclear electricity generation while leaving arguments about costs, fuel imports and climate targets unresolved.

The main events explain how the government moved from closure to considering a return:

• 2016: The DPP began pursuing its policy for a homeland without nuclear power.
• 2018: Voters rejected the nuclear phaseout provision in a referendum by 59 percent to 41 percent.
• May 17, 2025: Ma-anshan's second reactor stopped generating electricity.
• August 23, 2025: A referendum on restarting Ma-anshan failed to reach the required approval threshold.
• March 2026: Taipower submitted its Ma-anshan restart plan to the Nuclear Safety Commission.
• September 24, 2026: The commission approved the plan, allowing inspections and other preparatory work to proceed.
• November 28, 2026: Another referendum on nuclear policy is scheduled alongside local elections.

Lai has defended the reassessment by pointing to changing electricity needs, European carbon requirements and geopolitical risks. In March, he said reviewing nuclear restarts could proceed alongside support for wind, solar, small hydropower and hydrogen.

What Taipower must do before generating electricity

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taipower have assessed the second and third nuclear plants as having conditions suitable for pursuing a restart. Ma-anshan is the third plant. Its approved plan sets out work that must be completed before the regulator considers allowing generation again.

Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act requires an operator seeking to resume operations after a licence expires to obtain a replacement licence. That licence can last up to 20 years. Taipower must submit safety documentation, complete inspections and undergo regulatory checks.

Environmental organisations estimate that the work before the commission's next review could take two to five years. Their estimate and the economics minister's earliest restart date describe different expectations about how quickly the inspections and repairs might proceed.

For electricity users, the practical point is timing: Taiwan must keep supplying homes, factories and data centres while this work takes place. A nuclear restart would enter an electricity system that continues to change during the assessment.

Why environmental review could become a legal dispute

The Ministry of Environment says current rules do not require a separate environmental impact assessment for extending a nuclear plant's operating life. Environmental groups argue that the Environmental Impact Assessment Act requires one when an expired operating licence is replaced.

An environmental impact assessment examines how a proposed activity could affect people and their surroundings. The disagreement concerns whether restarting an existing reactor must undergo that statutory process alongside the nuclear regulator's safety review.

Article 29 of the assessment rules expressly covers construction of nuclear plants, additional units and decommissioning. It does not mention licence renewal. Lin Chien-Yen, a researcher at the Green Citizens' Action Alliance, argues that Article 5 of the act covers nuclear energy development and that applying for a replacement licence requires consideration under current law.

Anton Ming-Zhi Gao, a professor at National Tsing Hua University's Institute of Law for Science and Technology, points to litigation over Asia Cement's mining rights. Courts revoked an extension granted without the Indigenous consultation and consent required by law. Gao argues that the case supports assessing an extension as a new administrative decision under the law applying at that time.

Gao also says environmental checks within nuclear licensing and an assessment under the Environmental Impact Assessment Act follow different legal procedures. He expects any lawsuit to follow the issuing of a licence. The environment ministry could clarify its rules, while the nuclear commission can request additional documents under its licence review provisions.

Public support has a numerical and a local dimension

The August 2025 referendum produced 4.34 million votes for restarting Ma-anshan and 1.51 million against. Approval required support from at least one quarter of Taiwan's 20.02 million eligible voters, approximately 5.01 million people. The proposal fell about 665,000 votes short.

About 74 percent of votes cast supported restarting the plant, calculated from those two totals. The referendum failed because the approval threshold measures support against the eligible electorate, rather than only those voting.

The November 28 referendum asks whether the government should use nuclear power to revive the economy and abolish the policy for a homeland without nuclear power. Its result does not bind the Nuclear Safety Commission, which remains responsible for licensing decisions.

Communities affected by waste storage and emergency planning have their own concerns. Groups opposing nuclear power say the government has not explained a final disposal solution and warn that restarting reactors would add waste for affected communities to accommodate.

On September 29, the Green Citizens' Action Alliance, Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, and 32 other groups called for geologists, earthquake specialists and emergency medicine specialists to participate in the safety review. Lai's consensus condition therefore extends beyond counting votes to addressing risks borne by particular places.

AI demand meets a system dominated by fossil fuels

Taiwan generated 47.8 percent of its electricity from natural gas and 35.4 percent from coal in 2025. Together, those fuels supplied 83.2 percent. Renewables contributed 13.1 percent, while nuclear power provided 1.1 percent during the months before the final shutdown.

Lai said in the October interview that electricity planning already includes economic growth, computing centres and advanced computing needs. He said Taiwan could maintain stable supply through 2035, extending the horizon of his earlier assurance of supply through 2032 without nuclear power.

The president put current reserve capacity at about 20 percent and described generation levels of roughly 42 to 45 gigawatts. A gigawatt measures power at a particular moment; electricity generated over a day would be measured in gigawatt hours. Reserve capacity is the generating power available beyond demand, providing a buffer when consumption rises or equipment becomes unavailable.

Lai said Taiwan aims to build about one gigawatt of domestic computing capacity around 2040, excluding capacity built by foreign companies. He estimated that a computing centre of that scale would be worth about US$40 billion.

The figures connect industrial planning with electricity investment. A one gigawatt facility would equal roughly 2.2 to 2.4 percent of the 42 to 45 gigawatts Lai cited. Its actual demand would depend on how the facility operates, while its location would determine which parts of the electricity network need to carry the load.

Renewables remain central, with competing ambitions

Lai wants renewable electricity to rise from about 13 percent to 30 percent or more by 2035. Using the 2025 figure of 13.1 percent, reaching 30 percent would require an increase of 16.9 percentage points and more than double the share. If total electricity use grows, renewable generation would have to increase faster still.

Taiwan Climate Action Network director Chao Chia-wei argues for a more ambitious programme. He estimates that renewables could supply 60 percent of electricity by 2035, supported by extensive installation of rooftop solar panels, and that energy self sufficiency could reach about 25 percent.

Yeh Tsung-kuang, dean of National Tsing Hua University's College of Nuclear Science, favours combining renewable and nuclear generation. He estimates that putting all four existing nuclear plants into operation could provide 18 to 19 percent of total electricity demand, with newer nuclear technologies potentially adding about 10 percent. His proposal is broader than the government's current restart preparations.

Solar manufacturers are pursuing efficiency gains alongside the policy debate. The Industrial Technology Research Institute and companies have formed a TBC solar technology alliance to speed commercial use of cells with metal contacts on the back. Moving those contacts leaves more of the front surface available to receive sunlight, helping improve conversion efficiency and reduce costs.

For renewable developers, investment certainty also matters. Chao warns that renewed government attention to nuclear power could weaken confidence in renewable investment. Lai's position is that both forms of development can proceed together.

Smaller reactors bring a different timetable

Advanced nuclear energy in Taiwan's debate includes small modular reactors, micro modular reactors and nuclear fusion. Small modular reactors use nuclear fission, splitting atoms to release energy, as conventional reactors do. They generally produce up to 300 megawatts per unit and still generate radioactive waste.

Yeh argues that smaller reactors could supply industrial sites directly and reduce pressure on Taipower's network. Advocates also point to designs that use natural circulation for cooling during emergencies. Groups opposing nuclear power continue to question safety claims and waste arrangements.

Some academics expect small and micro modular technologies to become mature and commercially deployable after 2030. The National Atomic Research Institute estimates that Taiwan could receive its first electricity from a small modular reactor no earlier than 2035.

Gao identifies another issue: Taiwan's legal framework assumes Taipower is the nuclear operator and places liabilities on operators that could be difficult for a private company to accept. Deploying a reactor beside a data centre or semiconductor plant would therefore require decisions about regulation and responsibility as well as technology.

Energy security means more than enough generating capacity

Taiwan imported 95.8 percent of its energy in 2024. That dependence makes fuel supply and shipping routes part of electricity planning, alongside generating costs and carbon emissions.

Lai has cited the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism as another reason to reconsider the energy mix. The mechanism applies carbon costs to covered imports, giving affected manufacturers a financial reason to reduce emissions associated with production.

Yeh views nuclear power as a source of dependable generation that can work alongside renewables. Chao argues that domestic renewable resources offer a stronger route to reducing dependence on imported energy.

Lu Tsai-ying, who leads the energy resilience group at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology, focuses on how a system functions during disruption. She points to the vulnerability of large nuclear facilities during conflict and the need to restore electricity quickly after outages. More generation able to operate independently of the main grid, renewable installations and storage are among the measures she identifies.

For residents and businesses, those choices affect both ordinary bills and recovery after emergencies. Building enough power stations addresses supply; strengthening networks and spreading generation across locations addresses how electricity reaches users when parts of the system fail.

AI investment and trade widen the stakes

Lai's energy comments accompanied plans to spread AI use beyond semiconductor and server companies. The government plans NT$100 billion over eight years to help micro, small and medium sized businesses transform, while encouraging large companies to bring smaller suppliers into technology production networks.

Taiwan aims to become one of the world's five most AI literate countries, help at least one million smaller businesses adopt AI and develop at least 500,000 AI professionals by 2040. Lai said development should follow the Artificial Intelligence Basic Act, which took effect in January, with protections for human autonomy, privacy, information security, fairness, transparency and accountability.

The president also acknowledged risks from duplicated investment and weaker demand. He said publicly supported investment should be reviewed for returns and efficiency, with continued subsidies depending on results.

Trade adds another layer. Lai said Taiwan would seek to preserve a negotiated 15 percent reciprocal US tariff that does not stack with ordinary most favoured nation rates while monitoring Section 301 investigations. He also cited preferential Section 232 treatment and a 10 percent tariff arising from a forced labour investigation that likewise does not stack with those ordinary rates. An investigation into structural excess capacity remained pending.

Lai expected Taiwan's exports to reach US$900 billion in 2026, with the United States its largest market. His programme links those industrial ambitions to reliable, cleaner electricity. The decisions now facing Taiwan concern which projects can deliver that power, when they can operate and how their costs and risks will be shared.

Key Points

• Lai supports considering nuclear restarts if safety, waste disposal and public consensus conditions are met.
• Taipower must complete inspections and further regulatory review before Ma-anshan can generate electricity again.
• The economics minister identified 2028 as the earliest possible restart; the regulator has set no date.
• A dispute over environmental assessment requirements could affect licensing.
• A nuclear policy referendum is scheduled for November 28, 2026.
• Gas and coal supplied 83.2 percent of Taiwan's electricity in 2025; renewables supplied 13.1 percent.
• Lai targets renewable generation of at least 30 percent by 2035 and says electricity planning includes future AI demand.
• Taiwan's first electricity from a small modular reactor could arrive in 2035 at the earliest, according to the National Atomic Research Institute.