Taiwan's legislature backs referendum to scrap nuclear-free homeland policy as experts see strong chance of passage

Taiwan's legislature has approved a referendum proposal to scrap the "nuclear-free homeland" policy, with experts saying a vote alongside November's local elections would likely pass. 

The referendum proposal

On Aug. 14, the Legislative Yuan approved a referendum proposal introduced by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) caucus. After revisions before the vote, the final wording asked: “Do you agree that the government should abolish the ‘nuclear-free homeland’ energy policy to ensure public health, stable electricity supplies and affordable electricity prices, strengthen national defense resilience and support the development of artificial intelligence (AI) industries?”

The proposal passed 59-51 with support from the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). 

The proposal still requires approval from the Central Election Commission (CEC) before it can proceed to a public vote. If approved, it could be held concurrently with Taiwan’s year-end local elections.

President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said on March 21 that, following an assessment by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the No. 2 and No. 3 nuclear power plants had been found to have the conditions necessary for possible restarts, and Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) was preparing the relevant procedures.

The “nuclear-free homeland” policy, enshrined in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s charter, opposes the construction of new nuclear power plants, promotes alternative energy, and calls for the phased closure of existing nuclear facilities.

KMT Legislator Ko Ju-chun (葛如鈞) indicated that experts had projected that additional electricity demand from the semiconductor and AI sectors could exceed 5 million kilowatts by 2030, with annual growth ranging from 3% to 30%. He said the referendum would preserve nuclear power as an option for advancing Taiwan’s economy.

Taiwan’s previous nuclear referendums

The proposed vote would be Taiwan’s fourth referendum related to nuclear energy since 2018.

The 2018 “nuclear power to support green energy” referendum, led by Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), sought to remove language from the Electricity Act requiring all nuclear power-generating equipment to cease operation by 2025. It passed with about 5.9 million votes in favor, or nearly 60% of ballots cast, exceeding the statutory threshold.

A 2021 referendum on restarting construction and commercial operations at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, also led by Huang, failed after opposition votes exceeded supporting votes; affirmative votes also fell short of the threshold of 25% of all eligible voters. 

In 2025, the legislature, backed by the KMT and TPP, approved a referendum on extending the operation of the No. 3 nuclear power plant. Although about 74% of voters supported the proposal, it failed because the number of affirmative votes did not reach the statutory threshold.

Experts optimistic about a new vote

Huang, who led the 2018 referendum and founded Nuclear Mythbusters, told TCN that past referendum results and opinion polls showed that support for nuclear power had become an overwhelming majority in Taiwan.

Even voters aligned with the DPP who had traditionally opposed nuclear energy were unlikely to object strongly after Lai indicated that the government was considering restarting the No. 2 and No. 3 plants, Huang said.

“We have very strong reason to believe that, as long as the referendum is held together with a major election and turnout is sufficient, the nuclear-power referendum will certainly pass,” Huang said.

Chang Yuan-hsiang (張元祥), a political scientist at Soochow University, told TCN that public opinion in Taiwan had generally leaned in favor of nuclear power, particularly among younger voters.

Chang said the shift from anti-nuclear to more pro-nuclear public sentiment was partly shaped by a “spiral of silence,” in which the majority supporting nuclear power had been less vocal while a smaller anti-nuclear camp had expressed its views more intensely. Lai’s willingness to revisit the DPP’s nuclear-free policy, however, had substantially weakened anti-nuclear voices, he said.

Chang said the referendum’s declaratory significance outweighed its direct practical impact, as Taipower had already begun assessing the possible restart of the No. 2 and No. 3 plants and Lai had publicly supported the development of advanced nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs).

How the 2026 proposal differs from 2018

Huang said the 2018 referendum targeted a specific legal provision — Article 95, Paragraph 1 of the Electricity Act — requiring nuclear power generation to end by 2025. Although the measure passed and the provision was removed, the Tsai administration did not abandon its broader nuclear-free policy, Huang added.

The 2026 proposal, by contrast, directly calls for abolishing the nuclear-free homeland policy and explicitly frames nuclear power as a means of revitalizing the economy, Huang said.

The proposal’s explanatory statement also contains more specific recommendations, including building large nuclear reactors or SMRs at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant site, he said.

If the referendum passes, Huang argued, the government should not sidestep the result through legal or political interpretation, as he said the previous administration had done.

Political room to revisit energy policy

Chang said holding the referendum alongside local elections could provide the government with a political opening to reassess its energy strategy.

Absent any major surprise, he said, the referendum to abolish the nuclear-free homeland policy was likely to pass at the end of the year, allowing Lai to find a politically viable path toward restarting nuclear power.

Huang similarly said a successful referendum could help improve Taiwan’s energy mix, provide sufficient carbon-free electricity, preserve industrial competitiveness, align Taiwan with international trends and strengthen national defense.

He said the debate had moved beyond long-standing disputes over nuclear accidents and radioactive waste, and now centered on global net-zero emissions goals and surging electricity demand from AI and semiconductor industries.

Politically, Huang said, passage of the referendum should require the Executive Yuan to allocate funding for large reactors or SMRs at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant site — an action that would formally end the DPP’s nuclear-free homeland policy.

Nuclear energy and national security

Chang said Taiwan faced two major risks without nuclear power in its energy mix. First, its strategic security could be threatened in the event of a blockade of shipping routes. “Taiwan would face severe power shortages within 12 days, and its economy could collapse within 40 days,” he said.

Second, Taiwan’s key technology sectors — including AI and semiconductors — are highly electricity-intensive. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s electricity consumption alone was equivalent to roughly 9% of Taiwan’s total electricity use in 2024, while AI computing centers and data centers require enormous amounts of power, Chang said.

“Increasing the share of nuclear power is the only option for resolving these two problems,” he said.

According to Taiwan Power, natural gas accounted for about 53% of Taiwan’s power generation in 2025, coal for 27%, and renewable energy for about 13%.

Huang said the Aug. 15, 2017 blackout exposed the risks of excessive reliance on natural gas. The blackout occurred after an interruption to the gas supply at the Datan Power Plant knocked six generating units offline.

Taiwan’s gas supplies could be disrupted by a military blockade, prolonged typhoons or external geopolitical shocks, such as the Russia-Ukraine war or conflict involving Iran, he said.

Domestically, Huang argued that Taiwan lacked sufficient baseload power and that intermittent wind and solar generation could not provide adequate system inertia, leaving the grid vulnerable to instability and cascading failures.

He also cited Taiwan’s exposure to fossil-fuel price volatility, inflationary pressures and the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism as additional reasons to reconsider nuclear power.

At an international forum hosted by NOWNEWS on April 17, experts also said Taiwan’s increasingly close economic and trade relationship with the United States meant that Taiwan’s energy security had implications for US national security.