Wang Bo-whei was 50 years old when he started working at Taiwan’s fourth nuclear plant, rising through the ranks to oversee its construction and — he thought — its eventual operation.
But 15 years into the job, following delays that frequently plague nuclear power projects, Wang was tasked with sealing off the facility at the island’s northeastern tip without a single megawatt ever being produced. Public opinion had turned sharply in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, prompting the government to halt construction on all projects.