The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) confirms its backing for the government’s assessment of restarting nuclear plants, subject to safety conditions, as the regulatory process advances and a referendum approaches.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) has reaffirmed its support for the government’s programme to assess restarting nuclear power plants. It did so at its annual assembly in Hsinchu on October 29, 2026. Its board of directors and supervisors made it a formal position of the association. The support remains conditional on regulatory compliance and safety guarantees. Elsewhere, other nuclear projects are advancing on different logic, such as Rosatom’s offer of floating nuclear units to coastal African states or The Nuclear Company’s 6.6 GW nuclear project in Kentucky, while Taiwan is assessing the return to service of existing facilities.
The stance is not new. The association had already stated it in a communiqué issued after its spring general assembly. That text also called for strategic stocks of helium and liquefied natural gas, against the backdrop of Middle East tensions that had weighed on the supply chain.
TSIA chairman Cliff Hou is also senior vice president and deputy co-chief operating officer of TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker. He speaks, however, for an association whose members include TSMC, UMC, Vanguard International Semiconductor, Powerchip, Macronix, Nanya Technology and Winbond. He therefore does not speak for TSMC alone.
Chipmakers’ electricity demand
The driver of the position is the industry’s electricity demand. According to Taipower’s assessment, advanced wafer manufacturing, high-bandwidth memory, advanced packaging and artificial intelligence servers make semiconductors the sector whose consumption is growing fastest. Its share of national electricity consumption is expected to rise sharply.
Taipower also notes that chip plants are built much faster than power plants. The state-owned utility is therefore under pressure to expand capacity in time. The association repeats the same request for a stable and sufficient supply, which its chairman says he makes without tiring.
A recent political shift
The last operating reactor was shut down when its licence expired. That shutdown ended commercial nuclear power and, according to the government, achieved the “nuclear-free homeland” goal. The licences of the Kuosheng plant’s reactors had expired earlier.
The opposition, which holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, then amended the law governing nuclear facilities to allow an expired licence to be renewed. On that basis, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, headed by Kung Ming-hsin, approved a report by Taipower. The Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC), chaired by Chen Ming-chen, is conducting the regulatory process.
A referendum on the horizon
A referendum is approaching, initiated by the Kuomintang (KMT), the main opposition party chaired by Cheng Li-wun. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in power and historically anti-nuclear, leads the government of President Lai Ching-te and Premier Cho Jung-tai. The Central Election Commission, chaired by You Ying-lung, is among the institutions involved.
The TSIA thus positions itself in a debate where regulatory procedure, the electoral calendar and electricity needs intersect. Taipower, chaired by Tseng Wen-sheng, must expand capacity at the pace of chip plant construction, while the association maintains its call for a stable supply.
Source: Energy News.Pro