By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-09 21:34:49 | Updated at 2025-01-10 05:13:24
7 hours ago
Taiwan has a choice to make. Either decommission its only remaining nuclear power reactor as part of its phase-out policy or jump-start the energy source to meet its increasing power demand. The choice is not easy as the island weighs long-held safety concerns against energy and net zero ambitions.
Against this backdrop, the government is reportedly considering building central nuclear waste storage facilities since its current temporary facilities are only designed to last for 40 years. It could also propose separate regulations for high-level radioactive nuclear waste to continue the use of nuclear energy, said the Taipei Times, citing an unnamed source.
The review and approval of the sites could be completed by 2028, while geological investigations, site tests and an underground laboratory could be completed by 2029, the report added. The proposals come just months before Taiwan’s last nuclear power reactor approaches its decommissioning date on May 17.
Taiwan still only has regulations for the management of low-level radioactive nuclear waste. An attempt in 2017 to introduce regulations for high-level nuclear waste disposal failed due to a public backlash.
In July last year, Taiwan decommissioned one of the two reactors at the Maanshan nuclear power plant with the expiry of its 40-year licence, under the government’s phase-out policy. That left the island with just one operational reactor, with nuclear power dropping to make up just 2.8 per cent of Taiwan’s energy mix.
Taiwan, which has very limited domestic energy resources, imports over 97 per cent of the energy it needs, including for critical companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker with a market capitalisation of over US$1 trillion. Taiwan also aims to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
