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Belgium broke law but can keep nuclear plants open, EU court rules

Belgium broke law but can keep nuclear plants open, EU court rules,  DW, 31 July 19

Belgium’s self-imposed deadline for giving up nuclear power is not far off. Environmentalists look forward to the end of the atomic era, but not everyone thinks the country is ready to change course.  The European Union’s top court ruled on Monday that Belgium can continue to run two aging nuclear reactors, despite breaking EU law by not carrying out the necessary environmental audits.

By failing to carry out the environmental assessments before prolonging the life of Doel 1 and 2 nuclear reactors near the northern port city of Antwerp, Belgium infringed EU law, the court ruled.

However, the plants could stay open provisionally, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said: “Where there is a genuine and serious threat of an interruption to electricity supply.”

More than half of Belgium’s electricity is generated by nuclear power with reactors in Doel and in Tihange, in the east, near the border with Germany. But a 2003 law says the country’s last reactor must shut down by December 1, 2025.

The grid operator Elia has warned of a “serious crisis” if the government doesn’t act to fill gaps in production.   Despite recent technical hitches, some think Belgium has no choice but to keep its nuclear plants running.

Impact assessments

In recent years, reactors at both the Doel power station near Antwerp (pictured above) and the Tihange plant near Liège have been shut down temporarily because inspectors found tiny cracks caused by hydrogen flakes. During one period last autumn, six of Belgium’s seven reactors were down at the same time.

Nuclear power always carries risks, including the potential for leakage and cyber attacks, according to Sara Van Dyck from BBL, a Belgian environmental NGO. She says Belgium’s two nuclear plants “were designed in other times with other security standards.” The reactors all started production between 1975 and 1985.

The problems have attracted protest. In 2017, tens of thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators formed a human chain stretching from Tihange to the nearby Dutch city of Maastricht and the German city of Aachen. The Antwerp-based “elf Maart Beweging” (March 11 Movement),” named after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, says keeping the Doel plant running is tantamount to playing “Russian roulette with Antwerp.” Doel has more people living in the vicinity of a nuclear plant than anywhere else in Europe — 9 million within 75 kilometers (46 miles). …….

What all sides can agree on is that Belgium must make a decision, one way or another. Following the national elections in May, the country still doesn’t have a new government, and can’t afford to skirt the issue.  https://www.dw.com/en/belgium-broke-law-but-can-keep-nuclear-plants-open-eu-court-rules/a-49787150

August 1, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, Legal