According to ISIS, the United States and the IAEA have created a powerful set of constraints on Taiwan's nuclear program. Although possession of nuclear weapons may appear attractive to some in Taiwan, acquiring them would risk a military confrontation with China, and at the same time diminish the ability of the United States to intervene on Taiwan's behalf. The government secretly sought the capability to produce plutonium and turn it into metal, the main form of plutonium used in nuclear weapons.
Metallic plutonium has few civil uses.
Taiwan's program depended extensively on foreign assistance. The government sought plutonium separation and plutonium chemistry equipment from many different sources. It even acquired a small amount of separated plutonium, with which to conduct experiments, from the United States. According to ISIS, the IAEA played a vital role in discovering the secret activities in Taiwan during the 1970s. Although safeguards agreements were in place, Taiwan volunteered little information about its plutonium facilities.