Change of course: Belgium announces its return to nuclear

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Change of courseBelgium announces its return to nuclear
The new Belgian government says it wants to build new reactors when the country was committed to leaving nuclear in 2003.
At the head of the new Belgian government, the conservative Bart de Wever delivered his inauguration speech on February 4.
AFPThe new Belgian government led by the Flemish curator Bart de Wever wants to extend four gigawatts of existing nuclear capacity and build new reactors, he announced on Tuesday of his entry into office.
The commitment, which implies modifying the Belgian law of 2003 on the exit of nuclear, is included in the government agreement concluded on Friday evening between the five coalition parties, almost eight months after the June elections.
“Outdated law”
He was confirmed Tuesday before the deputies by Prime Minister Bart de Wever, who said his intention to “end an outdated law”, during his declaration of general policy.
Concretely, it is a question of deleting two articles from the law of 2003, that fixing the calendar of deactivation of reactors in service, and another relating to “the prohibition of producing energy based on atom”, explained the Minister of Energy Mathieu Bihet on the LN24 channel.
“We know that nuclear energy allows abundant, low carbon energy. We want households and businesses to leave carbon energies such as gas or fuel, “added this French -speaking liberal.
Objective of eight gigawatts
The Minister stressed that the government was tabling on an objective of eight nuclear capacity gigawatts, half of which would be new capacities to develop. The “first four GWs” correspond to the extension of power plants already in service.
Pillars of the new coalition, the Flemish conservatives and the French -speaking liberals never made mystery during the electoral campaign of their desire to return to this ecological marker of the exit of nuclear. A principle already blurred under the previous legislature.
Initially, the entire Belgian nuclear park – operated by the French group Engie – was supposed to be arrested at the latest at the end of 2025, according to this law passed in 2003 during the first participation of the Greens in the federal government.
Rebattered cards
But the context of the war in Ukraine, the dependence on Russian gas and the surge in energy prices has completely rebatted the cards since 2022.
Saying to fear for the supply of the country to electricity, the government of Alexander de Croo, the predecessor of Bart de Wever, obtained from Engie in 2023 the extension of ten years, until 2035, of two reactors of a Total capacity of two gigawatts.
It is now a question of obtaining the possibility of extending these two power plants for ten years – Doel 4 and Tihange 3 -, but also two other reactors whose imminent closure was scheduled.
Regarding the new capacities, Mathieu Bihet notably spoke of the development of small modular reactors (SMR).
What will not change in the 2003 law is the legal framework for periodic safety assessments, but the repeal of the two targeted articles “could be very fast,” also said the Minister.
(AFP)