(23 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Taipei City, Taiwan – 23 August 2025
1. Wide of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te arriving at news conference and walking to podium
2. Wide of news conference
3. Various of journalist asking question
4. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s President: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
“Regarding the referendum to restart the Third Nuclear Power Plant (Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant), although the threshold was not reached, we still respect the results of it (of the referendum). And I also fully understand society’s desire to have diversified energy choices. In the past many decades of discussions back and forth on the nuclear energy issue, the biggest consensus of Taiwan’s society is ‘safety’.”
5. Close of camera
6. Mid of journalist asking question
7. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s President: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
“And regarding whether the nuclear power plant could be reactivated, according to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act that was amended in May this year, the government stresses that there are two necessities in the procedure. The first being the Nuclear Safety Commission must provide a modus operandi on how to proceed safely, and the second being Taiwan Power Company must follow this modus operandi to perform the necessary checks itself.”
8. Wide of Lai leaving news conference
STORYLINE:
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said on Saturday that his government respected the results of a referendum on nuclear power where voters favored a return of the Maanshan plant but fell short of a threshold of eligible voters needed for approval.
Voters favored a return to nuclear power by an almost three-to-one margin, but the total in favor fell short of a threshold of 25% of eligible voters, or about 5 million votes, needed for approval.
The referendum was supported by 4.3 million voters and opposed by 1.5 million.
Taiwan shut down its last reactor in May under a the ruling Democratic Progressive Party policy of phasing out nuclear power, which once provided about 20% of the self-governing island’s electricity.
But the same month, the legislature approved a proposal from the Taiwan People’s Party to hold a referendum on extending nuclear power, with the support of the Nationalists.
The referendum asked voters if the most recently shut nuclear plant should continue operating, assuming regulators agreed it was safe to do so.
Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, Lai said although the threshold wasn’t reached the government would "still respect the results" of the vote.
"I also fully understand the society’s desire to have diversified energy choices," Lai added.
The last reactor at the Maanshan plant, one of three that Taiwan once operated, was shut three months ago after its 40-year operating license ran out.
Backers of nuclear power said it reduces electricity bills and helps meet the growing demand for power from artificial intelligence applications.
AP video shot by: Taijing Wu
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