TAIPEI, Taiwan – As Taiwan prepares to close its last reactor, the rising energy demand driven by the island’s semiconductor industry is rekindling heated debate over nuclear power.
According to the Ministry of Economy, Taiwan’s electricity needs are expected to increase by 12-13% by 2030.
Environmental group Greenpeace estimates that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturers (TSMC), the world’s largest contracted chip maker, will consume about a quarter of the island’s roughly 23 million people by the same day.
The rising appetite for the power of the self-decommissioned island complicates Taipei’s pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Nuclear advocates argue that energy sources are the most feasible way for Taiwan to achieve competing industrial and environmental goals.
On Tuesday, Taiwan’s parliament passed an amendment to allow licenses to be applied to expand operations beyond the existing 40-year limit.
Opposition parties, Kuo Mintan and the Taiwan People’s Party, passed a bill on objections from the ruling democratic progressive party, which took power in 2016 with a pledge to achieve a “nuclear-free home.”
The legal change will not halt the planned closure of the last operating reactor on Sunday (two reactors at the Mannshan Nuclear Power Plant), but raises doubts on many years of opposition to the island’s nuclear power plant.
The government said after the vote that there were no immediate plans for future nuclear power projects, but Prime Minister Cho Jung Thai has previously indicated that if the government passes the amendment, it will not oppose the recovery of the abolished reactor.
Cho said Taipei will be “open” to nuclear power if safety is ensured and if the public reaches a consensus on the issue.
The move to restart the local nuclear industry will take at least a few years.
Taiwan launched a private nuclear program in the 1950s with technology support from the US.
By 1990, the state-owned utility Taipower operated three plants with the ability to generate more than a third of the island’s electricity needs.
“Renewable energy is not stable”
Angelika Own, a member of the Nuclear-backed Clean Energy Transition Alliance, said that when DDP came to power nearly a decade ago, Taiwan could generate around 10% of its energy requirements from nuclear power plants.
“The energy emissions back then were lower than they were now. Isn’t that ridiculous?” Oung told Al Jazeera.
“It was reasonable to launch an anti-nuclear policy at the time, as the masses were still recovering from the devastating Fukushima nuclear disaster, but even now Japan has decided to return to nuclear,” Oung said of Tokyo’s plan to generate 20% of that electricity from energy sources by 2040.
“That’s because renewables simply don’t work.”
“The supply of renewable energy is not stable. For example, solar energy requires batteries,” added Oung.
The 2011 Fukushima disaster helped solidify opposition to nuclear power, but Taiwan’s anti-nuclear activity dates back decades.
The DPP was established several months after the 1986 Chornobyl disaster and contained anti-nuclear clauses in its charter.
The following year, the indigenous Tao people launched protests against Thai Power’s policy of dumping nuclear waste on Orchid Island, helping to solidify the private anti-nuclear movement.
Nuclear attracted even more negative scrutiny when it was revealed that about 10,000 people were exposed to low levels of radiation due to the use of radioactive scrap metals in building materials.
In 2000, Taipei stopped construction of its planned fourth nuclear power plant amid protests by environmental groups.
The 2021 referendum proposal to resume work on the Mothballed project has defeated 52.84% to 47.16%.
Chia Wei Chao, research director for the Taiwan Climate Action Network, said nuclear power is not the answer to Taiwan’s energy needs.
“Developing nuclear energy in Taiwan means reducing budgets to increase renewable energy, as opposed to other countries,” Chao told Al Jazeera.
Chao said that Taiwan’s nuclear power plants are built without taking into account the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis, and establishing a local industry that meets modern standards is costly and difficult.
“Current plant and reactor expansion means that infrastructure must be upgraded to meet more updated safety standards and take into account earthquake risks.
Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner Lena Chang said reviving nuclear energy is not only expensive, but potentially dangerous.
“We, Greenpeace, will firmly (oppose) the use of nuclear power plants as nuclear power plants will be rebooted and expanded nuclear use, as nuclear power poses unresolved safety, waste and environmental risks.
Chang said the chip industry needs to contribute to the cost of switching to renewable energy sources.
“They should be responsible for meeting their green energy needs, rather than leaving all the work to Tipower, as either the money to build more energy plants or storage facilities will ultimately come from people’s taxes,” she said.
Chao agreed, saying chip giants like TSMC should lead the push.
“The chip-making industry is here to stay… Certainly, the energy supply will be tighter over the next three years, but that’s still enough,” he said.