The island depends on imported fossil fuel for around 90 percent of its energy and lives under the growing threat of blockade, quarantine, or invasion from China. In addition, for political reasons, the government has pledged to close its nuclear sector by 2025…
Oung described two major blackouts—one in 2021 that affected TSMC and 6.2 million households for five hours, and one in 2022 that affected 5.5 million households. It is a sign, she says, of an energy system running perilously close to the edge.
Nicholas Chen argues that government is failing to keep up even with existing demand. “In the past eight years there have been four major power outages,” he said, and “brownouts are commonplace.”
The operating margin on the grid—the buffer between supply and demand—ought to be 25 percent in a secure system. In Taiwan, Oung explained, there have been several occasions this year when the margin was down to 5 percent. “It shows that the system is fragile,” she said.
My opinion nuclear is impractical for many reasons.
Google AI
Taiwan has shut down nuclear plants for a number of reasons, including:
Storage
The Kuosheng 1 reactor was shut down early in July 2021 due to a lack of storage for used fuel in the unit.
Seismic risk
Taiwan has active seismic faults, and a 2011 report placed all of its reactors in the highest risk group for seismic hazards.
Nuclear waste
Taiwan has had political disagreements over where to store nuclear waste for decades. Low-level radioactive waste was sent to Orchid Island until 1996, when local protests stopped that. High-level waste is currently stored in dry casks at the plants, but a final repository has not been identified.
Government policies
In 2016, the government elected won on a platform of phasing out nuclear power. In 2019, the government stated that it would not extend the life of existing plants or restart construction. A 2021 referendum to restart construction of the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant was also rejected.
Taiwan’s current energy mix is dominated by coal and liquified natural gas, with nuclear power accounting for about 5% of energy use.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=63304 Last month, Constellation Energy announced a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to provide electricity to Microsoft data centers in the mid-Atlantic region from the Unit 1 reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania…
The arrangement is the second this year in which a nuclear power plant owner has agreed to supply a data center with dedicated power as data center owners look for large and reliable sources of electricity supply for planned increases in demand. In March, Amazon Web Services (AWS) signed a contract for 960 megawatts (MW) of capacity from Talen Energy’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
What makes nuclear power plants attractive to data center owners…
Nuclear power produces reliable, steady energy (unlike solar or wind) which is what a data center needs. One could, of course, also use hydro (limited number of sites) or nat gas generators.
Reminds me of the construction trade. The builders are most leveraged at the top. Most of them have it backward. For big tech there is no way around that.
Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected to government in January 2016 with a policy of creating a “nuclear-free homeland” by 2025. Under this policy, Taiwan’s six operable power reactors would be decommissioned as their 40-year operating licences expire. Shortly after taking office, the DPP government passed an amendment to the Electricity Act, passing its phase-out policy into law. The government aims for an energy mix of 20% from renewable sources, 50% from liquefied natural gas and 30% from coal.
However, in a referendum held in November 2018, voters chose to abolish that amendment. The Ministry of Economic Affairs said the amendment was officially removed from the Electricity Industry Act on 2 December.
Nevertheless, then Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin said in January 2019 “there would be no extension or restarts of nuclear power plants in Taiwan due to subjective and objective conditions, as well as strong public objection”.
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To summarize: In 2018, the people voted to keep the nuclear plants running in Taiwan, but the government overruled the people and kept the shut down policy in place anyway. Today, there is one operable nuclear plant in Taiwan, which is scheduled to be permanently shut down next year.
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According to the Statistical Review of World Energy, the following was Taiwan’s electricity mix in 2023:
Coal: 42%
Natural Gas: 40%
Renewables (including hydro): 9%
Nuclear: 6%
Others~ 3%
Taiwan appears to be following the German model for combating climate change. Shut down the nuclear plants and keep the fossil fuel generators running to produce the electricity needed by the people.
50% from LNG is incredibly risky. If there is ever a crisis somewhere (or worldwide) requiring lots of natural gas, you can be sure that many of the places that currently liquify it and ship it will stop doing so for the duration.