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Engie, the French operator of Belgium's nuclear power plants, does not consider it realistic to keep any more nuclear reactors open than the two agreed upon with the federal government. This would mean that the substantial phase-out of nuclear power in our country is irreversible in the short term.

In the news: Engie's top executive, on the sidelines of a visit to the Flémalle thermal power plant, pitched his views on Belgium's nuclear power plants to some media.

From 7 to 5 to 2?

How it used to be: For decades, Belgium had seven reactors in two nuclear power plants, the Flemish Doel (four reactors) and the Walloon Tihange (three reactors). Together they accounted for about half of Belgium's electricity production.

The current state of affairs: The much-discussed "crack power plants" Doel 3 and Tihange 2 recently shut down. This means that Belgium today has to make do with five nuclear reactors.

  • The three oldest reactors from 1975 will close in 2025, relatively soon according to the nuclear phase-out law.
  • The two youngest reactors from 1985, Doel 4 and Tihange 3, were given a 10-year extension after a hard-fought deal between the federal government and Engie and will remain open until 2035.

The news: Political voices have been calling for some time to keep more nuclear reactors open than just Doel 4 and Tihange 3, which could also become a theme in the 2024 election campaigns. But Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor and Engie Electrabel boss Thiery Saegeman call that scenario "unrealistic."

  • No need to count on a restart of the "crack power plants" Doel 3 and Tihange 2 because the nuclear fuel there has been removed, Saegeman said. The history of safety problems at both reactors is an additional negative argument.
  • Then again, the three oldest reactors will reach the critical age of 50 in 2025. "With the current safety regulations, we don't see how we can extend it," Saegeman explained in Flémalle.

What after 2035?

Another scenario: In short, Belgium will have to make do with only two nuclear reactors, Doel 4 and Tihange 3, after 2025 and until 2035. When asked if the extension could not be doubled to twenty years, to 2045 in other words, the Engie summit replied doubly. That is not excluded in principle, but is not an issue at this time.

More to the point: The 10-year extension, on which an agreement was reached with the federal government in June, is still not entirely in the works. Engie wants a law to spell out that a subsequent government will not introduce additional taxes or scale back the nuclear deal, De Tijd reports.

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