TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Even though the first reactor at Taiwan’s last nuclear power plant will stop operations in July, new power plants will make up for the loss, Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said Friday (May 3).

The No.3 nuclear power plant in Pingtung County will also see its second and final reactor decommissioned in May 2025, turning Taiwan into a nuclear-free homeland, as promised by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government. However, the opposition at the Legislative Yuan has been pushing for a revival of nuclear energy with a plan to amend the law so the life of the existing power plants can be extended.

Wang emphasized that July’s reactor closure had been planned for a long time and that preparations had been made to compensate for the loss of the energy source, per Radio Taiwan International (RTI). She said the Sun Ba II gas-fired power plant in Tainan and units 7 and 9 of the Datan plant in Taoyuan would more than makeup for the amount of power produced by the nuclear reactor in Pingtung.

The new projects would be good for a capacity of more than 17 gigawatts, enough to meet increased demand from businesses returning to invest in Taiwan and from the expanding semiconductor sector, Wang said.

The minister rejected accusations that Taiwan had a problem with electricity shortages, blaming local and short-term blackouts on technical breakdowns, rather than shortages.

According to the government schedule, the reactors at the No.1 Nuclear Plant in Shimen, New Taipei, stopped operations in December 2018 and May 2019, respectively, per CNA. The No. 2 Nuclear Plant in Wanli, New Taipei, followed suit in July 2021 and March 2023.