Here in Australia, the Coalition is pushing to build seven nuclear power plants around the country, but in Taiwan, they’re working to phase out their own nuclear energy grid. The island’s last reactor is due to be decommissioned next year amid fears of earthquakes and safe waste disposal. But as Taiwan imports nearly all its energy, most of which is fossil fuels, those advocating for nuclear to stay point out that it is essential for energy security amid threats from China.
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00:00Lanyu, or Orchid Island, has been home to the indigenous Dao people for thousands of
00:09years.
00:10This is the field I inherited from my parents.
00:15Shaman Umrush and this island have been at the heart of Taiwan's nuclear debate since
00:20the 80s, when the government built a nuclear wayside here.
00:24As the local school principal, Shaman Umrush maintains the rage.
00:28Once we learned it was a nuclear waste, we started protesting.
00:33It has been nearly 40 years now.
00:37For almost 40 years, we kept asking the government to remove the storage site, but the officials
00:41kept delaying.
00:43The waste stored here is low-level, but investigations have found it's been badly managed, potentially
00:49exposing workers to high levels of radiation.
00:53If the nuclear waste stays in Lanyu, it will continue to impact the environment.
00:59It will also impact the roots of the plants and the habits of the animals.
01:04But the electricity company, Tai Power, says radiation around the dump is within safe limits.
01:10The ABC came here more than a decade ago, in the years following the 2011 Fukushima
01:16disaster in Japan, as fears about nuclear grew here in Taiwan.
01:21Since then, a new government has decided to phase out all nuclear power, even so the local
01:27fight about the nuclear waste dump here remains.
01:30But getting rid of nuclear energy creates a completely different set of problems.
01:35To take all that power you expected off the grid, it's left everything just really, really
01:41tight.
01:42In the past four years, there have been three major blackouts across Taiwan.
01:47That should be absolutely unacceptable, especially in a country where there's so much high-tech.
01:53And that makes it a problem not just for Taiwan, but for the world.
01:58This island makes more than 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductor chips.
02:03The wafers carved by light inside that silicon.
02:10A shortage of chips during COVID had worldwide consequences for new cars, phones and other
02:15technology.
02:16The semiconductor industry is an absolute monster when it comes to consuming electricity.
02:23Just one company, TSMC, in 2021, used 6.4% of Taiwan's grid.
02:3297% of Taiwan's energy sources are imported from uranium to coal and gas.
02:38Taiwanese people are well aware how vulnerable they are to a blockade or even invasion by
02:43China.
02:45Energy transition is a must, but we can't rush suspending the last nuclear power plant.
02:52If you want to stay competitive on the international stage and attract more foreign investments
02:57into Taiwan, the issue of electricity supply must be resolved.
03:02I think Taiwan needs to do more work on how to push more renewable energy and to make
03:11them integrated into the grid.
03:13Recent polling shows about 57% of Taiwanese people support nuclear power.
03:19Meanwhile, the electricity company Taipower is still figuring out what to do with Taiwan's
03:25nuclear waste.
03:26It says it will decide on a permanent storage location by 2038.
03:33If everyone can think more about rational use of energy, I think it will be better for
03:37the earth.