Taiwan’s Nuclear Phase-out: (Almost) one year on
Taiwan’s Nuclear Phase-out: (Almost) one year on By Chia-wei Chao, Yang Wei, and Benjamin Yang (Taiwan Climate Action Network) Published at WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor Issue 937 At precisely 10 p.m. on May 17 2025, Taiwan’s last operational nuclear reactor, located at the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant, was quietly taken offline. While there was no media spectacle or elaborate celebrations declaring triumph, this moment was undoubtedly a significant one. For a nation whose energy policy has been highly politically contentious for as long as, if not longer than, its democratisation, this marked a milestone in Taiwan’s energy transition and what seemed like the definitive end of an era. When Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) initiated this energy transition in 2016 upon regaining power, the country’s electricity generation was dominated by coal, which accounted for 45% of total supply. Six nuclear reactors contributed around 14%, whereas wind and solar barely reached […]