TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan is set to end the use of nuclear power when the No. 2 reactor at the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung is decommissioned at midnight Saturday.

The first reactor at the facility, which was also known as Nuclear Power Plant No. 3, stopped producing power last year. Taiwan’s two other nuclear plants were decommissioned earlier, while a fourth plant was built but never commissioned after decades of protests.

The closure of the Maanshan plant fulfils the Democratic Progressive Party’s promise to turn Taiwan into a nuclear-free homeland in 2025. The decommissioning is timed for midnight Saturday evening, with the procedure lasting from 1 p.m. until 10 p.m., per UDN.

According to the plant’s management, the spent nuclear fuel will be transferred from the reactor to the spent fuel pool by May 30. Trying to allay fears from nearby residents, management said that even after the decommissioning, white steam would still be seen escaping from the plant, but that was a normal occurrence.

Both reactors at Maanshan had reached the end of operating licenses issued for a duration of 40 years. The opposition at the Legislative Yuan had attempted to prevent the end of the nuclear era by voting in favor of an extension for Maanshan, but the government said that required legislative revisions and years of safety tests.