Belgium's Tihange 1 nuclear reactor ends 50 years of service

Operator Electrabel, the Belgian subsidiary of France's Engie, said the 962 MWe (net) pressurised water reactor was shut down at 23:21 local time on 30 September. It entered commercial operation on 1 October 1975. 

Belgium's federal law of 31 January 2003 required the phase-out of all seven nuclear electricity generation in the country. Under that policy, Doel 1 was originally set to be taken out of service on its 40th anniversary – 15 February 2015. However, the law was amended in 2013 and 2015 to provide for Doel 1 to remain operational for an additional ten years and it was retired in February this year. Duel 3 was closed in September 2022 and Tihange 2 at the end of January 2023. Unit 2 of the Doel plant is set to shut in November.

According to the Belgian Nuclear Forum, Tihange 1 - which is 50% owned by EDF Belgium - has produced more than 327 TWh of carbon-free electricity over its operating lifetime. "On an annual basis, this represents an average of 6.5 TWh, or the annual consumption of around 1.8 million households," it said.

Tihange 1 has now entered the decommissioning phase in preparation for its actual dismantling. Fuel will be unloaded from the reactor and cooled in the storage pool, so it can later be transported to temporary storage. Afterwards, the primary circuit will be chemically cleaned. The decommissioning phase is not scheduled to begin until 2028 and will continue until 2040.

The government had reportedly hoped to keep the reactor operating for longer and requested Engie not to carry out any irreversible work.

However, Engie has ruled out extending the operation of Tihange 1, The Brussels Times reported. Speaking at a press briefing on 29 September, site director Antoine Assice said the necessary preparatory work should have started five years ago. In addition, a prolonged operation of unit 1 would hinder the dismantling of Tihange 3, which is already under way. Also, the financial costs involved would be prohibitive.

"We are focused on the dismantling, which involves thousands of planned actions executed in strict alignment with our strategy and the agreement reached with the government," Assice was quoted as saying. "There will be no extension of this or any other nuclear unit."

Belgium's last two reactors - Doel 4 and Tihange 3 - were scheduled to close in November 2025. However, following the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022 the government and Electrabel began negotiating the feasibility and terms for the operation of the reactors for a further ten years, to 2035, with a final agreement reached in December, with a balanced risk allocation.

In May this year, Belgium's federal parliament voted by a large majority to repeal the 2003 law which set out a phase-out of nuclear power and ban on the construction of new nuclear generating capacity.