Southeast Asia revives nuclear power plans amid energy security concerns

Across Southeast Asia, governments are dusting off nuclear blueprints that have sat dormant for more than a decade. Vietnam signed a cooperation agreement with South Korea in September to advance the Ninh Thuan 2 plant, aiming to have two reactors operational by 2035. Indonesia is planning an initial 500 megawatts of capacity with units coming online in 2032. The Philippines is pursuing 1,200 megawatts from the same year. Thailand drafted plans for its first small modular reactor by 2037. Singapore, which has no nuclear plants, announced it was studying the technology with an open mind. Malaysia remains in the study phase. None of these countries currently operates a commercial nuclear reactor, yet the momentum is unmistakable.

The shift marks a sharp reversal from the caution that gripped the region after Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011, when several Southeast Asian nations shelved their nuclear ambitions. What changed is the pressure from three directions at once. Electricity demand across Southeast Asia has grown by roughly 60 percent since 2015, with coal filling most of that gap—its share of regional generation climbed from 37 percent to 47 percent. The International Energy Agency forecasts demand will continue rising by an average of 5.3 percent annually through 2030. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine and the Middle East crisis have sharpened energy security anxieties for developing nations. At the same time, most Southeast Asian governments have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 or 2060. Nuclear energy, in this framing, addresses both the climate imperative and the security concern simultaneously.

A second factor reshaping the conversation is technological. Small modular reactors—units designed to be deployed in smaller increments rather than as single massive installations—have opened possibilities that seemed closed fifteen years ago. Conventional nuclear plants demand enormous upfront capital, years of construction, and electricity grids robust enough to absorb their full output. SMRs potentially fit smaller grids and smaller countries, allowing for staged investment. The economics remain unproven at commercial scale; many SMR designs are still early in deployment, and promises of cost savings through mass production have not yet materialized. But the flexibility itself has changed how policymakers think about nuclear as an option.

A third driver is the explosive growth of data centers. More than 70 percent of Southeast Asia's existing data-center capacity sits in Singapore and Johor in southern Malaysia, and these facilities consume enormous quantities of reliable electricity. The IEA expects regional data-center electricity consumption to more than double by 2030. Countries watching this expansion see nuclear as a potential anchor for that demand.

Yet the obstacles remain formidable and largely unchanged from earlier attempts. Nuclear plants require independent regulators, specialized workforces, credible systems for radioactive waste management, and emergency response protocols that must function reliably for decades. Geography compounds the challenge. Much of Southeast Asia sits in zones vulnerable to earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis, making site selection and emergency planning acutely sensitive. Building the institutional ecosystem needed to support nuclear power—the regulatory bodies, the trained personnel, the safety systems—can demand as much effort as constructing the plants themselves.

Public sentiment is fractured. A Philippine government survey released last year found that more than 70 percent of respondents supported nuclear energy's role in electricity generation. Indonesia's Energy Transition Outlook 2026 reported the opposite: 78 percent of respondents ranked nuclear as their least-preferred energy source. Political will, experts note, depends heavily on public perception, and that perception varies sharply across the region.

The paths forward are diverging. Vietnam is reviving plans for large conventional reactors. Indonesia and Thailand are focusing on SMRs. Singapore is still building the expertise to determine whether nuclear makes sense for its context at all. No common regional strategy is emerging. One analyst observed that moving from announcing a nuclear ambition to actually financing, licensing, constructing, and safely operating a reactor represents an enormous leap—one that some countries may ultimately make, but only after years of institutional groundwork that most have not yet begun.