Belgium Faces Nuclear Power Cut

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Belgium's nuclear power production will continue to drop over the coming year following major delays at ongoing maintenance at the Tihange 2 and 3 nuclear units.

Both units, which are owned and operated by ENGIE-Electrabel (Brussels, Belgium), will now not start until well into next year due to "concrete degradation issues" in adjacent non-nuclear buildings are addressed. Tihange 2 was due to restart after its scheduled maintenance at the end of this month, but this has been pushed out to June 1, 2019. Tihange 3 was due to restart last month, but this has been delayed to March 2 next year. The impact for Belgium is that the availability of the country's seven operating reactors--four at Doel and three at Tihange--will drop to just 52% for 2018 and 74% for 2019.

Electrabel said that the problems will cost the company about 250 million euro ($295 million) in its 2018 financial results. Belgium relies on nuclear power for roughly half of its electricity, but there have been numerous issues at both plants in recent years.

Last June, Industrial Info reported that ultrasonic inspections revealed a large number of new cracks at the Tihange 2 reactor. For additional information, see June 22, 2017, article - New Cracks Found at Belgium's Tihange 2 Reactor.

"Last year, Electrabel established a concrete degradation at the ceiling of the Doel 3 steam outlet rooms where the exit pipes of the steam exhaust valves are located," the company stated. "These rooms are located in a building next to the reactor building, in the non-nuclear zone. These buildings fulfill an additional safety function for the most recent Belgian units that is generally not present in the power plants in our neighbouring countries. These buildings are exposed to intense steam pressure which, over time, causes a degradation of the concrete. The works for Tihange 3 and the analysis in progress for Tihange 2 and Doel 4 (core drilling, scraping, data collection) show that the state of degradation differs from building to building. The teams are currently working on a diagnosis and on calculations that will allow it to propose action plans to the authorities."

In March, Belgium's plan to secure longer life for three of its nuclear reactors was granted permission by the European Commission (EC). The government approved a 10-year extension of the lives of the Doel 1 and Doel 2 nuclear reactors until 2025 in return for significantly higher tax payments from plant owner ENGIE. A similar deal has been agreed with ENGIE and EDF Belgium for the Tihange 1 reactor. For additional information, see March 22, 2017, article - Europe Allows Belgium's Nuclear Extension Deal.

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