CONSULTING

The following section provides a short overview by country (in alphabetical order).
Belgium Focus
Belgium operates seven pressurized-water reactors and, for many years, had the world’s second
highest share of nuclear in its power mix, behind France. Due to technical issues described below,
it dropped to 47.5 percent in 2014—less than 50 percent for the first time since 1983 693 —and to
37.5 percent in 2015 (the maximum was 67.2 percent in 1986). The nuclear plants generated
24.8 TWh in 2015, another drop of 22.6 percent over 2014, and almost half of their highest output
of 46.7 TWh in 1999. Load factors of individual reactors were obviously particularly low for the
two units plagued by pressure vessel issues (see hereunder) and restarts only towards the end of
the year, Doel-3 with 0.7 percent and Tihange-2 with 4.4 percent (see Figure 48).
Figure 48: Load Factors of Belgian Nuclear Reactors
%
100
Load Factors of Belgian Reactors
(annual 2015 and cumulative, in %)
80
60
40
20
© Mycle Schneider Consulting
0
Doel-1 Doel-2 Doel-3 Doel-4 Tihange-1 Tihange-2 Tihange-3
Load Factor 2015
Load Factor Cumulative
Sources: IAEA-PRIS, MSC, 2016
Legally, the decision does not put into question the nuclear phase-out target of 2025: In January
2003, nuclear phase-out legislation required the shutdown of all Belgium’s nuclear plants after
40 years, so based on their start-up dates, plants would be shut down between 2015 and 2025
(see Figure 49). Practically, however, the new shutdown dates mean that five of the seven reactors
would go offline in the single year of 2025.
Following Fukushima, the phase-out legislation was left in place even though GDF-Suez (now
Engie), that operates all seven PWRs in Belgium through its subsidiary Electrabel, was lobbying
to postpone it via an extension of “at least 10 years”. 694 In December 2013, the phase-out
693 World Bank, quoted in Perspective Monde, see
http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMTendanceStatPays?langue=fr&codePays=BEL&codeStat=E
G.ELC.NUCL.ZS&codeStat2=x, accessed 25 May 2015.
694 Gérard Mestrallet, et al., “Nuclear in Belgium: recent developments”, GDF Suez, 4 November 2011.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 172 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016