Taipei (dpa -Afx) – A referendum to commission a disused nuclear power plant in Taiwan and thus the country’s return to nuclear energy failed. The referendum in the East Asian island republic did not have the necessary approval, as was made from official data from the Central Election Commission.
Taiwan only switched off his last reactor number two of the Maanshan nuclear power plant in the south of the country in May. Taiwan got out of nuclear energy – a central promise of the ruling Democratic Progress Party (DPP) under President Lai Ching -Te. Last but not least, the decision moved from the fatal consequences of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in Japanese in 2011. After the referendum, Lai was open to advanced atomic energy with improved technology and fewer nuclear waste.
Caring for energy bottlenecks
Around 20 million people over the age of 18 were entitled to vote. Only around 30 percent took part. The Taiwanese People’s Party had brought the proposal of a referendum. The opposition party justified this with the growing electricity requirement of the semiconductor industry and with energy safety because of the tensions with China, which Taiwan is part of its territory and wants to bind it to itself.
Opponents of the referendum such as the DPP and environmental organizations see a security risk in nuclear power plants on the island that is regularly affected by earthquakes. In addition, the question of the disposal of nuclear waste remains unclear.
More green energy
Taiwan’s nuclear energy era started in the 1970s. From 2018, old reactors were gradually removed from the network. According to the state energy supplier Taiwan Power Company, 82.1 percent of Taiwanish electricity came from fossil sources in 2024, 11.9 percent from renewable energies. Due to the further expansion, the government wants to increase the proportion of energy from the sun, wind, hydropower and geothermal energy to 30 percent by 2030./Jon/DP/MIS