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Released December 03, 2014 | GALWAY, IRELAND
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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Belgium's nuclear problems continued this week when a fire forced the shutdown of the Tihange 3 reactor, located southwest of the city of Liege.
Owner Electrabel SA (Brussels), a subsidiary of GDF Suez SA (EPA:GSZ) (Paris), said that it had temporarily closed the reactor on Sunday after a number of electrical cables outside the reactor caught fire. The closure meant that four of the country's seven nuclear reactors were out of service. Electrabel operates seven nuclear reactors in Belgium - four at the Doel nuclear power station and three at Tihange. The Doel 3, Doel 4 and Tihange 2 reactors have been offline for sometime undergoing maintenance and repairs.
"On Sunday morning a fire happened at Electrabel's high-voltage power station on the site of Tihange 3," stated Belgium's transmission system operator, Elia (EURONEXT:ELI) (Brussels). "This station transforms the electricity produced in the unit before it gets transferred to the high-voltage network. Due to the fire, the generation unit was automatically disconnected from the grid. The trip of the unit was compensated by activating the other production means and by load shedding at some large industrial plants, by which the balance on the network was maintained. For the remainder of the day there is sufficient electricity."
It added: "The damage of the high-voltage station of Electrabel is being assessed at the moment and of course Elia will offer its full support to allow a swift repair and ensure a prompt restart of the unit."
Separately this week, Elia warned that due to outages of several nuclear production facilities Belgium faces a loss of more than one third of its centralised generation capacity compared to the winter 2013-2014.
In August, an act of sabotage was suspected in the automatic shutdown of the Doel 4 reactor in northern Belgium. Authorities believed that that a worker deliberately opened a valve that resulted in a sustained drop to the level of oil lubricant in the steam turbine. For additional information, see August 14, 2014, article - Sabotage Shuts Belgian Nuclear Plant.
In May last year, the Doel 3 and Tihange 2 reactors were cleared for restart by Belgium's Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), after they were shut in 2012 when ultrasonic inspections discovered tiny cracks in the reactor pressure vessels. For additional information, see August 13, 2012, article - Belgium Shuts Doel 3 Nuclear Reactor.
However, both were ordered shut again in March this year after 'unexpected results' were discovered during tests on the reactor vessels.
View Plant Profile - 1072296 1072293
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. To contact an office in your area, visit the Industrial Info "Contact Us" page.
Owner Electrabel SA (Brussels), a subsidiary of GDF Suez SA (EPA:GSZ) (Paris), said that it had temporarily closed the reactor on Sunday after a number of electrical cables outside the reactor caught fire. The closure meant that four of the country's seven nuclear reactors were out of service. Electrabel operates seven nuclear reactors in Belgium - four at the Doel nuclear power station and three at Tihange. The Doel 3, Doel 4 and Tihange 2 reactors have been offline for sometime undergoing maintenance and repairs.
"On Sunday morning a fire happened at Electrabel's high-voltage power station on the site of Tihange 3," stated Belgium's transmission system operator, Elia (EURONEXT:ELI) (Brussels). "This station transforms the electricity produced in the unit before it gets transferred to the high-voltage network. Due to the fire, the generation unit was automatically disconnected from the grid. The trip of the unit was compensated by activating the other production means and by load shedding at some large industrial plants, by which the balance on the network was maintained. For the remainder of the day there is sufficient electricity."
It added: "The damage of the high-voltage station of Electrabel is being assessed at the moment and of course Elia will offer its full support to allow a swift repair and ensure a prompt restart of the unit."
Separately this week, Elia warned that due to outages of several nuclear production facilities Belgium faces a loss of more than one third of its centralised generation capacity compared to the winter 2013-2014.
In August, an act of sabotage was suspected in the automatic shutdown of the Doel 4 reactor in northern Belgium. Authorities believed that that a worker deliberately opened a valve that resulted in a sustained drop to the level of oil lubricant in the steam turbine. For additional information, see August 14, 2014, article - Sabotage Shuts Belgian Nuclear Plant.
In May last year, the Doel 3 and Tihange 2 reactors were cleared for restart by Belgium's Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), after they were shut in 2012 when ultrasonic inspections discovered tiny cracks in the reactor pressure vessels. For additional information, see August 13, 2012, article - Belgium Shuts Doel 3 Nuclear Reactor.
However, both were ordered shut again in March this year after 'unexpected results' were discovered during tests on the reactor vessels.
View Plant Profile - 1072296 1072293
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. To contact an office in your area, visit the Industrial Info "Contact Us" page.
