Contractors selected to build Belgian disposal facility

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

National radioactive waste management agency ONDRAF/NIRAS was granted a permit to construct and operate a surface disposal facility for low- and intermediate-level, short-lived waste at Dessel in 2023. ONDRAF/NIRAS spokesperson Sigrid Eeckhout said the decision on the contractors "brings us closer to a final destination for all low- and intermediate-level, short-lived waste in Belgium".

The construction of the above-ground storage facility will take place in several phases and will span several decades, Eeckhout said, with construction scheduled to begin "after the summer".

NucleusSafe is a joint venture of Belgian contractors Deckx, BESIX, Vanhout and Stadsbader. They will carry out the civil engineering component of the project.

"Building on our successful delivery of the foundation pit for the PALLAS reactor in the Netherlands, the spent fuel storage facilities in Doel and Tihange in Belgium, and a state-of-the-art nuclear medicine radioisotope facility in Sydney, we are proud to once again support the development of essential infrastructure in the nuclear sector," BESIX Belgium-Luxembourg General Manager Mark Beyst said. "Together with our joint venture partners, and especially with our subsidiary Vanhout, we remain fully committed to delivering this project with the highest standards of safety, technical precision, and operational excellence."

The Dessel surface storage facility will house all Belgian low- and intermediate-level, short-lived radioactive waste including that from nuclear power plants, hospitals, research institutes and the decommissioning of decommissioned nuclear facilities. Currently, this waste is managed in by ONDRAF/NIRAS' industrial subsidiary Belgoprocess in several dedicated buildings on the Dessel site.