The last time an energy crisis pushed Southeast Asia to consider nuclear energy, it led to a $2.2 billion plant in the Philippines that never got switched on.
Half a century later, a new crisis is pressing the region to start thinking about nuclear again. Global oil and gas prices have surged since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint. Southeast Asia, comprised mainly of net energy importers, has been hit especially hard by rising energy prices, accelerating plans to drive down energy usage.
On March 23, Vietnam and Russia signed a deal to build a nuclear power plant in Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan province. The plant, set to come online in a decade, will be Southeast Asia’s first modern nuclear power plant. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines have also signaled their intention to build nuclear capacity.
“Previously, the clean energy transition in the region was mainly driven by economic considerations—particularly the growing expectations from companies for access to low-carbon electricity,” Tan-Soo Jie Sheng, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore (NUS), tells Fortune. “However, geopolitical shocks like the Iran war bring the energy security dimension back into sharper focus.”
Southeast Asia’s previous attempt to go nuclear
The region’s first attempt at nuclear power, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, was built in the Philippines in 1976. Commissioned by President Ferdinand Marcos in the wake of the 1973 oil shock, the plant was completed in 1984 at a cost of roughly $2.2 billion. But the plant was never used, due to accusations of government corruption and waning public support for nuclear energy following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
“Marcos’ successor said that the plant was corruption-tainted—which is true—and claimed it was substandard and too dangerous to operate,” says Julius Cesar I. Trajano, a research fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
In recent years, rising energy demand, spurred in part by an explosion of AI data centers, is pushing several Southeast Asian nations to start reconsidering nuclear energy. In 2024, data centers consumed 415TWh, or 1.5% of the world’s electricity, according to the International Energy Agency; the organization also noted power usage had risen by 12% annually over the past five years.
“Unlike weather-dependent renewables like solar and wind energy, nuclear gives round-the-clock low-carbon electricity,” explains Tan-Soo of NUS. “That matters in Southeast Asia because electricity demand is rising fast, grids are uneven and governments want cleaner power without sacrificing reliability.”
Indonesia added nuclear power to its energy plan last year, with hopes to build two small modular reactors (SMRs) by 2034. Thailand wants to add 600 MW of nuclear generating capacity by 2037.
Advances in nuclear technology, like SMRs, have made modern nuclear plants safer, according to Alvin Chew, a senior research fellow at NTU. SMRs are reactors of up to 300 MW per unit, which are about one third the size of conventional large reactors. SMRs could be better suited to Southeast Asia, as they can be added to remote areas like islands and be connected to smaller or less-developed grids.
Major challenges
Yet experts caution against being too optimistic about nuclear power, due to gaps in technological and institutional development.
Many SMR designs are still in the early stages of commercialization, so “there is no guarantee they will be cheaper, more mobile and safer,” Ian Storey, a principal fellow from Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, explains. “There are only two experimental SMRs in operation, one in China and one in Russia. The rest exist only on paper.”
Others, like Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, point to low public acceptance for nuclear. “In most of Southeast Asia, except the Philippines where there is very strong support for nuclear energy, members of the public remain cautious about it, especially in countries like Indonesia which have a history of earthquakes and tsunamis,” he explains.
A 2021 survey from NTU reported low support for nuclear energy among the region’s population. Indonesia was the most receptive to nuclear, with 39% support; Thailand had the lowest share of support, at just 3%.
Public concerns may rise once nuclear projects get started. “The public’s rating of the risks of nuclear energy will likely change dramatically when presented with an imminent reality closer to home,” suggests Catherine Wong, an environmental sociologist from the University of Amsterdam.
Nuclear plants are also capital-intensive and time-consuming to build. “Nuclear is hard to do well,” explains Tan-Soo. “It requires a capable regulator, long-term political continuity, strong utilities, grid readiness, emergency planning, waste arrangements, and financing discipline. For many countries, those institutional requirements are often more difficult than the technology itself.”
Finally, there’s the security dimension. “The 21st century era of drone and cyber warfare makes nuclear power even harder to secure,” Wong suggests. That’s in contrast to more decentralized renewable energy: “You can take out five or even fifty wind turbines, and there will still be hundreds more spread across the country supplying electricity to the population.”
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