Belgium: Tihange 2 Reactor Closes – Nuclear Exit Plan

Belgium is shutting down its nuclear reactor for good starting today “Tihange 2”after 40 years of operation, under the nuclear phase-out plan approved by the Belgian federal government.

According to the nuclear phase-out law, “the 1,008 MW Tihange 2 nuclear power plant will be permanently disconnected from the grid on January 31 at 23:59, after 40 years of generating electricity in absolute safety.” It was put into operation on February 1, 1983 and since then it has produced 270 billion KWh, that is three times the annual consumption of the whole of Belgium. It is the second nuclear reactor to shut down in Belgium, following Doel 3 last September — again after 40 years of operation.

“There will be no job losses from the closure of ‘Tihange 2’,” assures the Belgian power company, Engie Electrabel. According to the Belgian press, some of the nuclear reactor workers will continue to be employed there for the final decommissioning and decommissioning work, while others will be transferred to the “Tihange 1” power plants, which in turn will be decommissioned. on October 1, 2025, and in “Tihange 3”the life of which is extended by 10 years.

The decommissioning of Tihange 2 is estimated at around one billion euros, while in total the decommissioning of all seven reactors at Doel and Tihange will cost around 6.3 billion euros.

According to the French-language newspaper “Le Soir”, the Belgian government is keeping the door ajar to a “nuclear future”. The Belgian government has pledged 100 million euros over four years to the Center for the Study of Nuclear Energy in Mol (SCK CEN) to study the SMR technology and eventually develop a Belgian model consisting of “small modular reactors”, with power ranging from 30 to 300 MWe (MWe) — compared to 1,000 to 1,600 MWe for the large reactors that are currently operating.

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