TAIPEI -- Taiwan authorities' recent decision to restart nuclear power plants has triggered intense debate, with critics accusing them of policy inconsistency and costly missteps that have weighed heavily on the island's economy and livelihoods.

The move came only ten months after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities announced Taiwan a nuclear-power-free land where the last operating reactor was shut down in May 2025.

The DPP's abrupt reversal of its long-standing policy against nuclear power has drawn widespread criticism of its manipulation of energy strategy as a political tool and its disregarding of the heavy price paid by the people of Taiwan.

Nuclear energy had been an important source of power supply in Taiwan until the DPP took office in 2016 and pushed forward a complete nuclear power phase-out, doing so despite Taiwan's heavy reliance on imported energy and the needs of its industries.

Since then nuclear power plants had been gradually decommissioned, culminating in a full shutdown in May 2025.

During this period, Taiwan's power supply remained tight, with multiple rolling blackouts and emergency rationing measures reported. Energy-intensive sectors such as semiconductors, electronics and petrochemicals faced increasing operational risks.

To fill this energy gap, the DPP turned to thermal power plants, which now generate more than 80 percent of the island's electricity output.

The policy not only worsened air pollution but caused chronic power shortages that have become a persistent constraint on economic growth and daily life in Taiwan.

According to Wang Hung-wei, a local legislator, electricity prices in Taiwan have been raised six times since 2016, with an average increase of roughly 44 percent.

Despite rising electricity costs, supply instability and environmental pressures, the DPP authorities had continued their policy until recently, when external geopolitical factors exacerbated energy supply risks and forced a shift.

Commentators noted that the abrupt turn from absolute opposition to nuclear power to a hasty restart, has resulted in massive duplicated investments and resource waste, with trial-and-error costs estimated to be hundreds of billions of New Taiwan dollars.

Chinese Kuomintang party Chairperson Cheng Li-wun said that the DPP's ideology-driven policies on this issue and others have imposed excessive costs on Taiwan and should be abandoned as early as possible.

Meanwhile, Huang Kuo-chang, chairman of the Taiwan People's Party, argued that the DPP authorities had suffered a collapse in political credibility and called on its leader Lai Ching-te to formally apologize to the public.

Media commentators also noted that the policy shift came only on the brink of crisis but added that the consequences of earlier decisions, including high consumer prices, costly electricity, increased reliance on thermal power, environmental strain and wasted investment, are already irreversible.

Taiwan-based China Daily News wrote that, while policy corrections may limit further losses, the public has already borne the brunt of the costs.