TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Wednesday he would vote against the restart of Taiwan’s third nuclear power plant in the referendum scheduled for Aug. 23.

He was speaking in his capacity as Democratic Progressive Party chair at the party’s weekly leadership meeting, per CNA. For years, DPP governments have named 2025 as the year Taiwan should turn into a nuclear-free homeland, an aim which was achieved when the final nuclear reactor at the Maanshan plant in Pingtung was turned off in May.

However, opposition parties launched a campaign for a referendum on the issue. Voters will face the question, “Do you agree that the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant should continue operation upon approval by the competent authority and confirmation that there are no safety concerns?”

Lai said Wednesday that for a restart to be approved, the Nuclear Safety Commission first needed to draw up a procedure for a safety review of nuclear energy. A second requirement was that the state utility Taiwan Power Company should conduct the safety review based on the procedure drawn up by the Nuclear Safety Commission and evaluate the safety and cost.

The president reiterated his administration’s basic stance, that there should be no doubts about the safety of nuclear energy, that there should be a solution to the problem of nuclear waste, and that there should be a national consensus.

Nuclear safety was a scientific problem, and not an issue to be resolved by a referendum, Lai said. Even so, he would vote in the Aug. 23 referendum, and vote against the restart of the nuclear plant.

Televised presentations for and against nuclear energy have been taking place in the run-up to the referendum. In the final event to be televised Friday, Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄), a DPP legislator from Pingtung, will face Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), the deputy convener of the president’s National Climate Change Committee, who will defend nuclear reactivation.