Belgium to Scrap Nuclear Power

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Belgium looks set to become the latest European country to abandon nuclear power sooner than expected.

The country's two main political parties have been struggling to form a new government but have agreed on getting rid of nuclear power. It now looks like the previous government's decision in 2009 to extend the lives of its older nuclear plants by up to 10 years will be scrapped in favour of a phase-out starting from 2015, when the oldest reactors will be shut down. This will be followed by a complete phase-out of nuclear power by 2025. Germany announced its surprise withdrawal from nuclear power in May. For additional information, see May 30, 2011, article - Germany Votes to Dump Nuclear Power.

Belgium operates seven reactors at two plants, Tihange and Doel, which supplied over 50% of the country's electricity in 2009, according to the International Energy Agency. Three of the reactors will reach their 40-year age limit in 2015.

"If it turns out we won't face shortages and prices would not skyrocket, we intend to stick to the nuclear exit law of 2003," a spokeswoman for the country's energy and climate ministry told the media.

Shutting down Doel and Tihange will result in 5,860MW disappearing from the electricity grid.

The spokeswoman added: "The government will actively look for new investors and sites that are still unused to see what can be done."

The political parties have decided to reverse the previous government's decision on nuclear power extensions and instead support a 2003 decision to scrap nuclear power. In October 2009, the ruling government decided to extend the life of existing plants by up to 10 years. At the time, it was agreed that the owner of the plants, Electrabel SA (Brussels, Belgium), a subsidiary of GDF Suez SA (EPA:GSZ) (Paris, France), would pay between €215-245 million ($296-337 million) per year from 2010-2014 for the privilege. The government was also demanding that Electrabel paid €500 million ($689 million) to fund Belgian renewable projects. For additional information, see October 19, 2009, article - Belgium to Extend Nuclear Power Programme.

Electrabel has reacted angrily to the latest decision to phase out nuclear power, claiming it puts the country's electricity security at risk along with up to €1 billion ($1.38 billion) of investment from its parent company, GDF Suez.

"One of the measures considered yesterday consists in postponing the shutdown of these reactors by 1 to 3 years, to give potential investments the time to come on line to assure replacement capacity," the company stated. "Such an idea completely fails to take into account the industrial reality and the safety limitations specific to the nuclear sector, and is, therefore, totally unrealistic. Most of the equipment used inside nuclear power stations--mainly control and command equipment--ndergo a procedure licensing them for a forty-year period, after which they have to be replaced. This entails large investments that only can be justified by a lifetime extension of a certain duration, and in any case of at least 10 years."

It added: "Lastly, Electrabel will assess the possibility of redirecting the investments it intended to make in order to extend the reactors' lifetime, i.e. almost one billion Euros, to guarantee the security of supply for its customers in the future, in particular thanks to the power plants currently owned by GDF SUEZ in Europe."

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