Green light for restart of nuclear plants

Scientists have given the go-ahead to the restart of two Belgian nuclear power plants despite signs of micro-cracks in reactor vessels, Le Soir said on Saturday. No independent confirmation was immediately available from Belgium’s nuclear safety authority, AFCN. Le Soir, which did not identify its sources, said, “Experts on material resistance who were asked for their opinion on the fate of the Tihange 2 and Doel 3 vessels have handed in a positive report.” AFCN had said it would hand the government a report on whether to restart the reactors in mid-January. It has already received a positive report from the country’s Electrabel power utility. Le Soir said the experts had, however, asked for “more intensive” checks. Many “potential cracks” were found during inspections early last year at the base of the reactor vessel at Doel 3, near Antwerp, which was closed in June, as well as at Tihange 2, near Liège. It was halted in August for investigation after the problems at Doel came to light. The reactor vessels, housing the nuclear core, were built in the 1970s by the Dutch firm RDM, which has since ceased business. RDM equipped 20 nuclear plants, half of them in Europe. Last year, the Belgian nuclear regulator said the problems in the Doel 3 reactor likely dated back to its construction and while there was little current risk, there was “a malaise given the large number” of defects. The EU has 147 reactors in 14 countries, with more than a third of them in France, which depends almost entirely on nuclear generators for electricity.

(AFP)