Nuclear review can go hand in hand with green energy push: Lai

Taipei, March 22 (CNA) Reviewing a possible restart of nuclear power plants is compatible with Taiwan's continued push for renewable energy, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Sunday in defending his administration's policy reversal on nuclear power use.

Speaking to reporters, Lai said the government will continue developing green energy -- including wind, solar, small hydropower and hydrogen -- alongside any assessment of nuclear restarts.

"The two approaches can move forward together without any contradiction or conflict," he said.

Opposing nuclear power has long been a central tenet of Lai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the DPP tried to stop the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant soon after he took power in 2000 and then pushed an amendment to the Basic Environment Act in 2002 that called for devising plans to "progressively achieve the goal of a non-nuclear homeland."

Former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) then fully embraced the goal of a "non-nuclear homeland" by 2025 during her unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign and enshrined it into law after winning the presidency in 2016.

Responding to questions on whether the move contradicted the longstanding "non-nuclear homeland" policy, Lai said the goal had already been achieved after the second reactor at Nuclear Power Plant No. 3 was shut down in May 2025.

Lai argued that renewable energy had compensated for the loss of nuclear power generation under former President Tsai's green-energy initiative, helping maintain a stable power supply, but that Taiwan's energy strategy now needed to be reassessed.

Several factors, such as an expected rise in electricity demand driven by economic growth and AI development as well as low-carbon standards and geopolitical shifts, had to be accounted for to ensure an adequate, resilient and low-carbon supply of electricity, Lai said.

Some DPP members argued the move was triggered by the opposition-controlled Legislature's passage of amendments to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act allowing nuclear power plant operators to apply for a 20-year license to extend the life of their facilities.

Lai said that based on those amendments, state-run Taiwan Power Co. was preparing to submit restart plans for the No. 2 and No. 3 nuclear power plants to the Nuclear Safety Commission by the end of March.

Any restart would be contingent on nuclear safety, waste management solutions and public consensus, he said.

Some environmental groups that had long supported the vision were stunned and angered by the potential shift back to nuclear power.

Tsui Shu-hsin (崔愫欣), secretary-general of the Green Citizens' Action Alliance and a long-time anti-nuclear advocate, said Lai had not only compromised the dignity of the presidency but also appeared to have forgotten his role as party chairman.

"The president may be able to explain himself to his business friends, but how is he going to answer to his supporters?" she said.

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) said Lai's position aligns with the KMT's long-standing energy stance but criticized the government for inconsistency, asking: "So restarting nuclear power no longer counts as nuclear power? What would the restarted plant be called?"

The KMT urged Lai to "honestly admit mistakes and apologize to the public," arguing that past anti-nuclear policies had led to costly and inefficient energy decisions.

Meanwhile, Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said at a press conference that the decision to pursue nuclear restarts was "correct and necessary," but called on Lai, in his capacity as DPP chairman, to formally apologize for past policy positions and political attacks during debates over nuclear legislation.

Huang himself has taken differing positions on nuclear power policy in recent years, opposing a referendum in 2018 that supported eliminating the non-nuclear homeland policy while backing a referendum in August 2025 that was for restarting the third nuclear plant.