In May, Taiwan shuttered its last nuclear reactor, completing a process of denuclearization that had unfolded over four decades. In the mid-1980s, the island generated half its electric power from nuclear energy, an enterprise undertaken by the dictator Chiang Kai-shek in response to the oil shock of the 1970s. But once military rule ended, in 1987, antinuclear sentiment began to take hold. Taiwan’s early democratic activists feared that they could have a Chernobyl disaster of their own and associated nuclear power with Taiwan’s authoritarian past.
The 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan added to nuclear fears. In the following years, Taiwan’s government let licenses lapse for six functioning nuclear reactors—all with good track records—and halted the construction of two more. In doing so, they inadvertently undermined the island’s energy security. Today, the island imports 98 percent of its energy, in the form of oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and coal. This reliance on energy imports could easily be exploited, especially by China, which has its eyes on unifying with Taiwan. The Chinese navy and coast guard routinely rehearse cutting off the island’s ports, including from energy tankers.
Such a scenario would be a disaster not just for Taiwan but also for the United States. Taiwan supplies nearly all the advanced logic chips that U.S. technology firms use to power artificial intelligence. Chipmakers, both from Taiwan and elsewhere, are now trying to set up more advanced chip factories within the United States. But the trillions of dollars in capital and know-how already invested in Taiwan mean that, for the foreseeable future at least, the United States’ AI success or failure runs directly through the island.
Taiwan is, in some ways, already facing an energy crisis: Taiwan’s overtaxed electricity infrastructure is struggling to keep up with roaring AI chip production. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company alone now uses eight percent of Taiwan’s power, almost half the amount consumed by all the island’s homes. If the United States wants to ensure it has access to the leading AI chips—and if it wants to avoid a messy geopolitical crisis in which China holds Taiwan’s energy imports captive—it should shore up Taiwan’s energy security by helping to improve its energy storage and encouraging the island to embrace nuclear power.
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