Taiwan plans to keep its nuclear power plants on 'emergency standby'

Taiwan on Sunday announced that it is considering keeping its nuclear power plants on "emergency standby" as an exception to its policy of phasing out nuclear energy by 2025. The Taiwanese government only plans to shut down its nuclear plants' reactors temporarily in a way that they can be restarted in case of an emergency, according to Taipei-based United Daily News. The daily cited the island nation's Vice-President Lai Ching-te. Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, for the first time, explicitly signalled that Taiwan will not completely shut down the nuclear plants. 

The total renewable installed capacity of the nuclear reactors amounted to 9.31 GW in 2021, according to reports. This was enhanced from an estimated 1.38 GW in 2010 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.0%. The renewable capacity of the reactors is expected to increase from 9.3GW in 2021 to 63.7GW in 2035 at a CAGR of 14.7%. As per the analysis of the GlobalData, Taiwan's nuclear reactors have depleted uranium deposits, implying that it is more suitable for power generation. 

Use of nuclear reactors as backup generation 'costly' 

Experts have warned that the use of nuclear reactors as a backup generation would incur high costs for Taiwan and that there is a need for safety measures. Taiwan is planning to phase out its last remaining atomic plant by 2025 in order to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels such as coal consumption. This has left the government under pressure to build gas-powered generators in order to deter power outages.

Restarting nuclear plants during extreme emergencies such as the serious natural disaster, would avert an energy crisis. Lawmakers in Taiwan have been in agreement on temporary switching on the nuclear reactors in case of emergencies, according to Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua.  In 2021, he noted, Taiwan got about 11% of its power from nuclear plants. State-owned Taiwan Power Co. revealed that the island is operating reactors that started in the 1980s and will close down by 2025. “The government has been actively encouraging the use of renewable sources for energy generation to reduce dependence on fossil fuels," Wang Mei-hua was reported saying. "To support the development of renewable energy, the government passed the Renewable Energy Development Act in 2009 which set a target of 27 GW of installed capacity coming from renewables by 2025. Solar PV and offshore wind are expected to constitute most of the installed renewable capacity by 2035," he added.