Tihange Nuclear Power Station

ReactorsEdit

The plant has three pressurized water reactors, with a total net capacity of 3008 MW_e and makes up 51% of the total Belgian nuclear generating capacity. Its units are rated as follows:

The reactors were supplied by different consortia, respectively ACLF (ACECOWEN-Creusot-Loire-Framatome), FRAMACECO (Framatome-ACEC-Cockerill), ACECOWEN (ACEC-Cockerill-Westinghouse).

The units were designed for an operational lifetime of 30 years. In 2003, a Belgian law concerning the closure of the Belgian nuclear reactors permitted an operational lifetime of 40 years for the three reactors in Tihange. On July 4, 2012, however, the Belgian government decided that Tihange 1 could be operated until 2025.

No filters present in the high pressure valves of the reactor vesselsEdit

In answer to questions of the Greens in the Bundestag, the German parliament, the German government replied that in all outdated Belgian nuclear power plants no filtered pressure relief valves were installed. In German nuclear reactors these were already built in after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986; other countries followed this example around or after 2011, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This kind of filter should prevent radioactive air from leaving the pressure vessel unfiltered. According to the German Government, the nuclear reactors of the Doel Nuclear Power Station are missing these emergency pressure filters also. This news caused alarm in the national and local press around these nuclear reactors.

IncidentsEdit

On November 22, 2002, an incident occurred in Block 2 (INES 2). The reactor was shut down at this time and no longer critical. However it remained necessary for decay heat to be removed from the reactor by circulating coolant. The November 22 incident involved accidental opening of a pressure relief valve. This caused the high pressure primary coolant circuit to rapidly depressurize, therefore reducing the ability of the circuit to remove heat from the reactor (the high pressure prevents the coolant - water - from boiling), leading to possible reactor overheating and eventual meltdown. The pressure relief valve was closed again after three minutes.

On September 3, 2008 a malfunctioning fan was found in a reactor. This was classified as INES-1. Also, in 2005 and 2002 there were two INES-2 incidents. And in 2001 and 1993 there were fires on the site of the nuclear power plant. Those were classified as level 0.

Since 2006 there has been a leak of 0.5-2 liters per day of mildly radioactive water from a deactivation-bath. After this was notified to the Belgium Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) Electrabel tried to find the cause of the leak. But on 11 July 2012 it became apparent that the leakage still exists. According to FANC this issue is "under control" and no radioactivity leaks outside the buildings.

September 1, 2012, it became known that the Tihange 2 reactor shows signs of erosion weakening of the outer reinforced concrete mantle up to a depth of 0.3 m. Electrabel and the Belgian nuclear regulator FANC deny any immediate security risk since the reactor was already shut down for maintenance.

February 23, 2015, Dutch newspaper reports on thousands of cracks well up to 6 cm according to Federaal Agentschap voor Nucleaire Controle (FANC). Actual discussion still assumes the reactor to be turned on in July again. This did not happen, and in September 2015 the unit is still offline pending further investigation.

On 10 June 2016 Tihange 2 was shut down automatically. The cause was discovered a day later: a defect of an electro-motor attached to a turbine in the non-nuclear part of the reactor. It was expected, that the reactor could be restarted at Wednesday 15 June.

On 7 September 2016 Tihange 1 was shut down, because one building of the plant had been damaged during construction works. Two days later, Tihange 2 was also shut down because a failure occurred in the steam generator in the "non-nuclear" part of the plant. It is not known how long the repair will take. Tihange-1 was expected to be taken into service again on 11 September 2016. Three months later the problems around Tihange-1 were still not solved. In neighboring countries the demands to close all Belgian reactors were growing, but the Belgian authorities - depending on nuclear power, as they were - refused all requests. "The problems were in the non-nuclear-departments".

On 12 December 2016 Engie Electrabel announced that Tihange-1 could not be restarted before 15 February 2017. The original date planned was 31 December 2016. The reconstruction works could not be completed in time.

On 20 February 2017 Electrabel announced that Tihange-1 could not be restarted before the end of March. Before the restart can take place FANC (Agency for nuclear control) ordered tests and studies to be done. The Agency reviewed the report in which the operator pointed out to resume the power production at the end of February as insufficient.

On 24 March 2017 was announced that Tihange-1 was not to be restarted before 31 May 2017, so was confirmed by the operator Engie Electrabel. The decision was taken after contact with the Federal Agency for nuclear control. "After consults with FANC was decided to additional analyses and work to strengthen the ground," said a spokeswoman of Electrabel. After damage to a building of the non-nuclear section on the site the reactor was halted. New test were ordered, including a survey of the ground under the building. New test were ordered. Because the reactor was out of service the loss of income was around 15 million euros per month.

SecurityEdit

In August 2015 4 people of the staff of Tihange were suspended for some time. In six weeks time, there had been 10 incidents on the Tihange powerplant. In cooperation with Electrabel an actionplan for safety was made. In the opinion of Wagner, the spokesman of FANC, it had "many good points".

In December 2015, police found that a camera had been set up outside the house of a SCK•CEN nuclear researcher to track their movements. Seven people had their access to the Tihange and Doel facilities revoked after the 2016 Brussels police raids in March 2016, and during the 2016 Brussels bombings, the Tihange and Doel Nuclear Power Station facilities evacuated non-essential personnel.

On 25 March 2016, a G4S security guard for the National Institute of Radio-elements (IRE) in Fleurus died in a shooting when he walked with his dog in Charleroi. His security cards were stolen. The cards, which give access to nuclear sites in Belgium, were deactivated shortly after the killing was discovered. Belgium denied that the guard's death was terror related.

On 26 May 2016 it was found that one of the systems to measure the pressure inside the cooling-circuit did not function. When unexpected pressure fluctuations occur it might be needed to halt the whole nuclear power station. This was scaled as INES-1 incident. It was called an "irregularity". Four days later on 30 May it was discovered that a measuring station for radioactivity in the control room of Tihange 3 had been in "testmode" for days and as a consequence did not work at all. The safety was not in direct danger, because there was another backup system active. Nevertheless FANC scaled this incident also as INES-1. Of these two incidents an official legal report was made. In the view of FANC was the staff had been negligent, while there were serious questions about the safety culture.

In the first months of 2016 Electrabel published a paper about the safety of the reactors in case of a fire at the plants. This was done after five years of study. Conclusion: Electrabel estimated the chance of a meltdown in their reactors once in every 10 years. The director of FANC, Jan Bens, could not believe this, and asked for an explanation. According to Bens: ‘That a study with such aberrant conclusion could pass all levels at Electrabel, was nothing short of appalling. In such a case, the nuclear power stations must be shut down immediately.' In a note of only three pages did the Electrabel-top studies off as totally unrealistic. For FANC the conclusion was clear: the fire safety study was totally unbelievable and poorly done. Even the directory of Electrabel had not enough attention for nuclear safety culture. After all the incidents in the Tihange reactors in the years 2015 & 2016, even in Doel the safety culture crumbled.

In February 2017 the Frenchman Jean-Philippe Bainier was installed as the new CEO of Tihange in order to restore confidence in the safety culture at the plant. He succeeded Johan Hollevoet, who was in charge from September 2016 at the Tihange nuclear power station. Together with FANC a new action plan was made in order to raise the safety culture level. 'Safety is my first priority', insured the Engie Top-woman Isabelle Kocher: 'On the safety of our people, of the people living near the power plants and the environment is not to bargain.' In the action plan the responsibilities were more clearly defined and the company was willing to will appeal more independent expertise. The action plan includes a total of 314 actions, of which 142 were already carried out. The intention was that around August 2017 the action plan was to be completed.

Labour unions' actionsEdit

On April 12, 2016, members of labour unions blocked access to the nuclear power station over longstanding complaints about business operations. Only staff in direct control of the reactors and soldiers for surveillance were admitted. Members of management, administration, maintenance and external staff was stopped, to the surprise of the Executive Board, which announced negotiations later that day.

Extended German measurements to protect its population against possible nuclear accidents in TihangeEdit

In the summer of 2016 the state of North Rhine-Westfalia ordered billions of additional iodine tablets, in order to protect its population against nuclear accidents. There are no nuclear reactors located inside this state but the reactors in Tihange Belgium are located near the German border. People in the Netherlands and Germany are seriously concerned about their safety, these reactors are old and all incidents in the years gone by caused serious concern. In 2015 the German Government extended already the regulations for iodine tablets: now all pregnant women, feeding mothers and minors in the state will be eligible. Tablets will also be available for those living less than one hundred kilometers from the Tihange reactors and younger than 45 years of age.

Dutch request for temporary closure all Belgian nuclear power plantsEdit

In the first week of December 2016 the Dutch minister Melanie Schultz of Infrastructure and Environment requested the Belgian Cabinet to consider a temporary shut down of all Belgian nuclear power stations. This was done after a Belgian study suggested a large risk of a meltdown in the event of a fire at the Tihange Nuclear Power station. Although this particular study had been criticized as "outrageously bad", it was still unclear how safe the plant really was, in the event of a fire at the plant would take place. Schultz suggested to close down all stations temporarily in anticipation of new research. The Belgian Minister of Home Affairs Jan Jambon refused to do so.

It had become also known, that the safety culture at the plants just across the border, was not particularly in order. The Belgian authorities had already taken a series of measures, said Schultz. Strict measures were taken to improve the "safety culture".

Licence withdrawn for processing nuclear wasteEdit

In December 2015 NIRAS took away the permit, which Electrabel had, for the processing, packaging and disposal of radioactive waste. NIRAS is the public body responsible for the management of radioactive waste and enriched fissile materials in Belgium. Without this acceptance, nuclear waste must be stored at the nuclear sites themselves, and it cannot be transported to the industrial subsidiary of NIRAS, Belgoprocess, located in Dessel. Nuclear waste is accumulating on the sites since that date.