Saturday

3rd Jun 2023

Belgian nuclear reactors get 10 extra years of life

  • Doel power plant in Belgium. Two of its reactors, scheduled to go offline this year, will continute to operate until 2025 (Photo: Remflex)

Two Belgian nuclear reactors which were supposed to retire this year at age 40, will remain operational until they are half a century old.

Federal energy minister Marie Christine Marghem said the longer lifespan, until 2025, was necessary to ensure security of electricity supply in Belgium.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The Belgian government announced that negotiations with energy company Electrabel on the life extension of reactors Doel 1 and 2 have been concluded on Wednesday (29 July).

However, critics say that the unexpected U-turn from a previous government's commitment to close the reactors is putting off investors.

The sense of urgency that Belgium needed to up its energy security was partly strengthened by failures in other nuclear reactors.

About half of Belgium's electricity supply comes from its seven nuclear reactors. Three of them were offline for months on end in 2014, another two suffered from temporary shutdowns.

Reactors Doel 3 and Tihange 2, which each supply around 1,000 megawatt – around 13 percent of Belgium's electricity – have been unavailable for more than a year now, because of a repair of “microcracks” in the pressure vessels. They are scheduled to restart 1 November 2015

The temporary loss of part of the nuclear power, combined with a possibility of a harsh winter, caused concern last autumn that Belgium could be faced with blackouts.

Board games to save electricity

The Belgian government called on citizens to reduce electricity consumption, play board games instead of computer games and cook meals in one pan instead of several.

It also set up plans to pre-emptively disconnect selected areas when a local power shortage was expected to jeopardise the whole grid.

“In the end, nothing bad happened, because it wasn't a cold winter,” energy researcher Fabio Genoese told this website. But the government did not exaggerate the potential problems, he added.

“It was a critical situation, for sure”, said Genoese, a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

However, he said that for the coming winter, it is “statistically unlikely” that there will be another combination of reactors offline for maintenance and cold temperatures.

According to Belgian media, minister Marghem last month said that there would be no need to worry for electricity shortages this winter.

The decision to extend the lifetime of Doel 1 and 2 is set to create a surplus capacity.

And because in 2003 the Belgian government decided to phase out nuclear power plants, starting with the retirement of Doel 1 and 2 (433 megawatt each) this year, investors in gas supplies had expected there would be demand for their product.

Not good for investors

“This is a typical example of an unexpected policy intervention which is not good for the investment framework,” noted Genoese.

In December, he told EUobserver that the "problem of Belgian politics" was to blame for the blackout scare, with its multiple layers of government and the limited shelf life of the average Belgian coalitions.

“You had so many energy ministers, from different political parties, [each] putting their political view in energy policy. … People do not trust the framework enough to do investments,” he said then.

Now, the researcher said the government decision to continue with Doel 1 and 2 will decrease investors' trust even more. "You cannot rely on this", he said.

His analysis is similar to what energy commissioner Maros Sefovic is expected to say in October, when he will speak to Belgian representatives on his 'Energy Union tour'.

According to a draft paper of the Commission's analysis of the Belgian energy system, leaked two months ago, the EU's executive said one of the country's weaknesses is: “Insufficient regulatory and planning stability delays investments in electricity production and infrastructure".

EU struggles with cost of nuclear clean-up

Member states will need to spend €253 billion by 2050 to clean up their old reactors. They have so far put aside only half of that figure, according to an EU report.

Opinion

Lessons from Fukushima for EU energy policy

Five years on from the Fukushima disaster, Japan, the UK, and other EU states should commemorate victims by opting for safe and renewable energy over the genie's bottle of nuclear power.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

Latest News

  1. Spanish PM to delay EU presidency speech due to snap election
  2. EU data protection chief launches Frontex investigation
  3. Madrid steps up bid to host EU anti-money laundering hub
  4. How EU leaders should deal with Chinese government repression
  5. MEPs pile on pressure for EU to delay Hungary's presidency
  6. IEA: World 'comfortably' on track for renewables target
  7. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  8. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us