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Belgium's Oldest Nuclear Reactors Can Run To 2025 - GDF Suez

Belgium's oldest nuclear reactors can operate safely until 2025, after some improvement and upgrades are undertaken, GDF Suez (GSZ.FR), the French utility that owns the plants, said in a report to the country's nuclear regulator.
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Τρι, 3 Ιανουαρίου 2012 - 18:08
Belgium's oldest nuclear reactors can operate safely until 2025, after some improvement and upgrades are undertaken, GDF Suez (GSZ.FR), the French utility that owns the plants, said in a report to the country's nuclear regulator.

Belgium 's three oldest nuclear units "can continue to operate beyond 2015, guaranteeing a high level of safety," the report, published on the website of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, reads.

To guarantee an extra 10 years of life, GDF Suez has prepared a seven-year action plan that will be implemented only if there is a political decision to delay the exit from nuclear power, the company says. The report was requested by the regulator, as it is preparing for the possibility of a delay in the phase out of nuclear power.

The date at which Belgium will start shutting down its nuclear plants has been a matter of controversy, after the country's previous government expressed the intention to amend a 2003 law mandating that the oldest reactors should be shut in 2015. The new government, in power since last month, has said instead that it will stand by the original law and agreed to double an annual tax on the production of nuclear power.

Belgium has two nuclear power plants, with a total of seven reactors that provide roughly 55% of the country's electricity.

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