Nuclear power should remain a carbon-cutting option: Academia Sinica head

Taipei, Nov. 11 (CNA) Taiwan should not exclude nuclear power in its pursuit of clean energy to achieve its 2050 net-zero carbon emissions goal, Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said Monday.

Fielding questions on cutting carbon emissions from opposition lawmakers at a legislative hearing, Liao said the 2050 net-zero goals are equally challenging for all countries, and Taiwan is not in a position to exclude any clean energy methods or technologies.

Among the technologies Liao said Taiwan should not ignore as part of its clean energy development were nuclear power, geothermal power, and methane pyrolysis (which produces hydrogen from methane in a relative clean way).

Liao agreed with lawmaker Wan Mei-ling's (萬美玲) proposition that not excluding nuclear power meant using new technologies to upgrade the safety or strengthen the structure of nuclear power plants located in seismic zones.

"Technologically, all these options are feasible," he said.

In terms of nuclear power research, beyond looking at emergent small modular reactors (SMRs) or direct nuclear power, Taiwan could also study earthquakes and clearly identify areas that have the highest earthquake risks to inform future decisions, Liao suggested.

Nuclear power has been a contentious issue in Taiwan, with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) phasing it out by 2025 and replacing it by renewable energy while still maintaining high levels of fossil fuels in its electricity mix.

Renewable energy accounted for only 10.5 percent of total electricity generation in the first nine months of 2024, up from 9.1 percent during the same period in 2023, but still far below the government's 20 percent target for 2025.

Phasing out nuclear power, which generated over 16 percent of Taiwan's electricity as recently as 2014, has meant increasing the use of fossil fuels, to 83.4 percent of the total electricity mix in the first nine months of 2024.

Meanwhile, asked about what would happen if the United States dropped out of the Paris Agreement again, Liao said it would be a blow to attempts to achieve the 2050 net-zero goal.

He said the international community would have to react to such a decision, preferably in a short amount of time.

Academia Sinica is Taiwan's top academic institution.