BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers.
Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest.
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FILE -Protesters hold a sign during a rally against the restart of the No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, in front of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) headquarters in Tokyo, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE -A data center building is seen under construction in Sedenak Tech Park in Johor state of Malaysia, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
FILE -US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, takes part in a memorandum of understanding signing with Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamad Hasan during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' meeting and related meetings at the Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, July 10, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE -This aerial view, taken Jan. 19, 2025, shows the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the Philippines, which has never produced a single watt of energy. (AP Photo/Anton L. Delgado, File)
FILE -Construction workers walk to a data center building under construction in Sedenak Tech Park in Johor state of Malaysia, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs.
The Iran war is underscoring the vulnerability of Asia’s energy supplies, raising the sense of urgency about finding alternatives to oil and gas in Southeast Asia, analysts say.
The surge in crude oil prices caused by the escalating conflict has raised the motivation for countries to speed up their nuclear efforts, said Alvie Asuncion-Astronomo of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute.
Vietnam and Russia advanced a nuclear power deal this week as the region's energy security concerns worsened. In South Asia, Bangladesh is racing to power up its new nuclear power plant, also backed by Russia, to address the country's energy shortfalls.
Southeast Asia will account for a quarter of growth in global energy demand by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency, or IEA. That partly is because of the more than 2,000 data centers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, according to the think tank Ember.
Many more data centers are in the pipeline.
That's most obvious in Malaysia, which aspires to be Southeast Asia’s AI computing hub and has drawn investments and interest from tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Nvidia.
The revival of Southeast Asia's nuclear interest mirrors a global trend.
Nearly 40 nations — including the United States, Japan, South Korea and China — have joined a global push to triple installed nuclear energy capacity by 2050. Southeast Asia will account for nearly a fourth of the 157 gigawatts expected from “newcomer nuclear nations" by mid-century, according to the industry-backed World Nuclear Association.
“There is a more serious, new and growing momentum for the development of nuclear energy in Southeast Asia,” said King Lee, with the association.
Five of the 11 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines — are chasing nuclear.
Vietnam is building two nuclear plants, backed by the Russian state corporation Rosatom. These are “nationally significant, strategic projects," according to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. Vietnam's revised atomic energy law took effect in January.
Indonesia added nuclear to its new energy plan last year, aiming to build two small modular reactors by 2034. Officials there say Canada and Russia have issued formal cooperation proposals and others will soon follow.
Thailand set a target last year of adding 600 megawatts of nuclear generating capacity by 2037. Nuclear is a “promising solution” to supplying enough affordable, clean electricity to meet rising demand, officials with Thailand's Electricity Generating Authority told a conference in Bangkok.
No Southeast Asian nation has engaged with atomic energy more than the Philippines, which built a nuclear power plant in the 1970s that it never turned on.
A new atomic energy regulatory authority launched last year will “usher in the integration of nuclear power," according to Philippine officials. The country set a 2032 target and approved a roadmap for potential investors in February.
“We are not anticipating that nuclear electricity will be cheap at the onset," said Asuncion-Astronomo. But in the long term, she said it will improve the Philippines' energy reliability, security, independence and eventually costs.
“The ongoing conflict in the Middle East definitely demonstrates how volatile fossil fuel costs are and the instability of the supply,” she said. “Nuclear is an alternative solution that can give us more self-reliance in terms of energy.”
Southeast Asian nations without firm plans are also showing interest.
Cambodia’s latest national strategy signaled an openness to nuclear and Singapore outlined plans last year to study its own atomic potential.
Even the tiny oil and gas sultanate of Brunei told the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, that it is “carefully exploring nuclear energy."
The AI-focused data centers contributing to Southeast Asia’s growing energy demand are large windowless buildings filled with rows of computers.
A standard AI data center consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households, the IEA says.
Malaysia has more than 500 operational data centers. Another 300 or so are under construction and around 1,140 are planned, according to Ember.
Malaysia revived its nuclear program last year and set a 2031 target for bringing atomic energy online.
“A lot more industries are expanding in Malaysia,” said Zayana Zaikariah, with the Kuala Lumpur-based Institute of Strategic & International Studies, listing growing interest in data centers, semiconductors and mining. “Everything requires energy.”
The U.S. is helping.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed an agreement with Malaysia last year. He called it “a signal to the world of how civil nuclear cooperation is something that is available." President Donald Trump also sees nuclear as a way to meet data center demands. In 2025, he ordered the quadrupling of U.S. nuclear power within the next 25 years.
“There’s more incentive to follow through compared to previous flirtations with nuclear energy,” said Amalina Anuar, with the ISEAS-Yusof Institute, a Singapore-based think tank. The fact that Malaysia’s oil and gas reserves are finite is driving a search for new energy sources.
Fossil fuels generate 81% of Malaysia’s electricity, Ember found, while solar and wind provide just 2%.
“Malaysia’s decarbonization is both urgent and critical as rising demand from AI and data centers is anticipated,” said Dinita Setyawati with Ember. “But the nuclear option should be approached cautiously.”
Global nuclear capacity will more than triple — to about 1,446 gigawatts — by 2050 if existing reactors continue operations and governments meet their stated targets, according to the World Nuclear Association.
More than 400 nuclear reactors, in about 30 countries, generate around 380 gigawatts of energy, according to the IAEA's Power Reactor Information System. This is makes up between 4.5% to 10% of the world's energy, the IEA and nuclear association estimate.
Concerns over nuclear safety, waste and supply remain. Public resistance flared after the cataclysmic 1986 Chernobyl and 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdowns. But even Japan, which idled all its plants after that disaster, is restarting its nuclear plants.
Bridget Woodman, with the research group Zero Carbon Analytics, said that as the world strays farther off track from its climate goals, nuclear can look deceptively more enticing than other less risky alternatives, like renewable energy.
Southeast Asian countries “considering starting a nuclear industry from scratch” need to consider “the possibility of accidents,” she said.
Associated Press writer Aniruddha Ghosal in Hanoi, Vietnam contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE -Protesters hold a sign during a rally against the restart of the No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, in front of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) headquarters in Tokyo, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE -A data center building is seen under construction in Sedenak Tech Park in Johor state of Malaysia, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
FILE -US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, takes part in a memorandum of understanding signing with Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamad Hasan during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' meeting and related meetings at the Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, July 10, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE -This aerial view, taken Jan. 19, 2025, shows the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the Philippines, which has never produced a single watt of energy. (AP Photo/Anton L. Delgado, File)
FILE -Construction workers walk to a data center building under construction in Sedenak Tech Park in Johor state of Malaysia, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that a deal to end the Iran war is near, after Tehran dismissed his 15-point ceasefire plan and issued its own sweeping demands to stop fighting as it launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries.
Two officials from Pakistan described the 15-point U.S. proposal broadly, saying it included sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is normally shipped.
Iran issued its own plan via state TV, which includes a halt to killings of its officials, means to make sure no other war is waged against it, reparations for the war, the end of hostilities, and Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
“No negotiations have happened with the enemy until now, and we do not plan on any negotiations,” Iran’s foreign minister later told state TV.
Trump insisted at a Republican fundraiser Wednesday night that talks were underway with Iran's leaders.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Trump said.
The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, nearly 1,100 people in Lebanon, 20 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members, as well as a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Here is the latest:
Iran’s parliament is working on a bill to formalize the fees it is reportedly charging on some ship transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, local media reported.
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, quoted lawmaker Mohammadreza Rezaei Kouchi as saying that “that “parliament is pursuing a plan to formally codify Iran’s sovereignty, control and oversight over the Strait of Hormuz, while also creating a source of revenue through the collection of fees.”
“This is entirely natural, just as goods pay transit fees when passing through other corridors, the Strait of Hormuz is also a corridor,” he reportedly said. “We provide its security, and it is natural that ships and oil tankers should pay such fees.”
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, is considered an international waterway open to all shipping. Imposing fees would end that and likely be strongly opposed by the Gulf Arab states, the United States and others.
The comment by Sultan al-Jaber, who leads the massive state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., signaled the hardening rhetoric of the United Arab Emirates as the war nears its one-month mark.
“Weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz is not an act of aggression against one nation,” al-Jaber said in a speech for an event hosted by the Middle East Institute in Washington.
“It is economic terrorism against every consumer, every family that depends on affordable energy and food. When Iran holds Hormuz hostage, every nation pays the ransom, at the gas pump, at the grocery store and at the pharmacy. No country can be allowed to destabilize the global economy in this way. Not now. Not ever.”
Sirens sounded about an hour after sunrise across a large swath of central Israel, including areas around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s military said early Thursday morning that Iran had launched missiles toward the country.
The first such alert of the day came after an unusually long lull of more than 14 hours.
Hezbollah rocket fire, however, remained constant overnight in northern Israel, and once reached the Tel Aviv area overnight.
Iran is running a “de facto ‘toll booth’ regime” in Strait of Hormuz, controlling which ships come through and getting payment for their safe passage, a leading shipping intelligence firm said Thursday.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence published an analysis highlighting Iran’s practices through the strait.
It described vessels having to provide manifests, crew details and their destination to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The information goes to the Guard’s “Hormozgan Provincial Command for sanctions screening, cargo alignment checks that currently prioritizes oil over all other commodities, and for what is described as ‘geopolitical vetting,’” Lloyd’s List said.
“While not all ships are paying a direct toll at least two vessels have and the payment is settled in yuan,” Lloyd’s List said, referring to China’s national currency.
Such payments likely would run afoul of American and European sanctions on the Guard, a key power center within Iran that controls its ballistic missile arsenal and was key in suppressing nationwide protests in January.
Iran has not directly explained the process for ships to go through the strait, though a Foreign Ministry spokesperson appeared to acknowledge Tehran was receiving payments for some ships in an interview.
Fuel prices in Thailand surged Thursday after the government lifted a cap on diesel prices and reduced fuel subsidies.
The majority of fuel types rose by 6 baht ($0.18) per liter.
Diesel prices jumped by about 18%.
The increase is expected to hit the industrial and transportation sectors particularly hard and has raised concerns about a ripple effect on the cost of goods.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed long lines forming at gas stations after the price hike was announced late Wednesday night.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said earlier this week the government would allow fuel prices to adjust in line with global market rates, aiming to manage demand following a surge in panic buying.
Australia has temporarily restricted some Iranians from traveling to the country for fear that they would be unwilling or unable to return to their homeland because of the war.
The restrictions apply from Thursday for six months to Iranian Visitor (Subclass 600) visa holders.
These visas have been issued to more than 7,000 Iranians who intend to visit Australia for tourism, business or to see family.
“When you get a sudden conflict like has happened with Iran, who have a large number of people who’ve been issued visas who, if they applied now, would in fact not be eligible,” Immigration Minister Tony Burke told Parliament on Thursday.
Authorities will use the six months to reassess visa applicants. An unknown number will be exempt.
Activists in Iran reported heavy strikes early Thursday morning around Isfahan, a city some 330 kilometers (205 miles) south of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
The pro-reform newspaper Ham Mihan reported online about strikes in the area.
Isfahan is home to a major Iranian air base and other military sites, as well as one of the nuclear sites bombed by the United States during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, described the attacks as targeting “two residential areas,” without elaborating.
Earlier, Israel’s military said it had completed “a wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran, including in Isfahan.
A missile alert sounded on mobile phones in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday morning.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted multiple drones over its oil-rich Eastern Province on Thursday morning.
Kuwait reported it was working to intercept incoming Iranian fire early Thursday morning.
Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens early Thursday morning.
The United Arab Emirates air defenses early Thursday also worked to intercept incoming fire.
U.S. forces have hit more than 10,000 targets so far in the Iran war, the head of the American military’s Central Command said.
U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper made the comments in a video released early Thursday by Central Command.
“If you combine what we’ve accomplished with the success of our Israeli ally, together, we have struck thousands more,” Cooper said. “Our precision strikes have overwhelmed Iranian air defenses and our combat flights are having tangible effects.”
Cooper added that the U.S. has destroyed 92% of “the Iranian navy’s largest vessels.”
“They’ve now lost the ability to meaningly project naval power and influence around the region and around the world,” Cooper said.
Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through drone and missile attacks on shipping, however.
Cooper also said the U.S. has struck over two-thirds of Iran’s munitions plants.
“Today, we have damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities and shipyards — and we’re not done yet,” he said. “We are on a path to completely eliminate Iran’s wider military manufacturing apparatus.”
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press, though delayed by two weeks by Planet Labs PBC, have shown Israeli and U.S. strikes targeting shipyards and missile facilities.
Iran has not acknowledged any of its materiel losses through the war.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius described the Iran war as an economic “catastrophe” and said Germany did not want to get “sucked into” the conflict.
Pistorius said on Thursday Germany was ready to help secure any peace once that was achieved and appealed for a ceasefire as soon as possible.
“To make it crystal clear, this war is a catastrophe for the world’s economies,” Pistorius told reporters at the Australian Parliament House.
“From the beginning on, we have not been consulted before. Nobody asked us before. It’s not our war and therefore we don’t want to get sucked into that war,” Pistorius added.
Pistorius addressed the media in the national capital Canberra following a meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles.
People take cover in a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strikes in Bnei Brak, Israel, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke and flames rise following an Israeli military strike on a target in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March, 25, 2026.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Members of the displaced Abd el-Hajj family, and two of their cousins, right, who fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Members of a family, who fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, sit around a bonfire outside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pro-government supporters chant slogans and wave Iranian flags during a rally, in a square in western Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
