“The 2003 nuclear phase-out law is now completely outdated,” says Professor of Nuclear and Radiation Physics Nathal Severijns. Business AM Radio. “We need CO2-free energy, not gas-fired power plants. »
Why is this important?
Belgium currently produces about half of its electricity through nuclear power plants. But soon phasing out nuclear power will mean finding other ways to generate energy. That’s not a good idea, warns Severijns.“The law on the phasing out of nuclear energy from 2003 is completely outdated,” says Severijns Business AM radio. Since Belgium is fully committed to the electrification of society, the physicist believes that more CO2-free energy is needed “and gas-fired power stations, for example, are not”.
The current generation of nuclear reactors, commissioned between 1975 and 1985, could run for 60 years, not 40, says the KU Leuven professor: “So I really advocate that all reactors remain operational for as long as possible. We have an agency, the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC), that ensures that these nuclear reactors can be operated safely at all times. »
The future
According to Mr. Severijns, however, it is not enough to look only at the past. New technologies must also be applied. From 2035, new, even safer, ‘small modular reactors’ (SMR) reactors will be available, the specialist estimates. “They don’t even need human intervention in case there’s a problem and they need to be stopped.”
- But perhaps the biggest advantage of SMRs is that some types can use “spent fuel from current nuclear power plants, what we commonly call nuclear waste” as fuel.
- “We can fractionate this nuclear waste, which today contains long-lived radioactive material, in these new types of reactors and convert it into short-lived radioactive material. »
- This waste would remain radioactive for only a few hundred years, rather than thousands of years as is the case for certain types of nuclear waste today. “We would then find the same radioactivity as for the materials coming out of hospitals in the form of surpluses, used in scanners and for cancer treatments, etc.”.
panic football
- Mr. Severijns attributes the current movement for the abolition of nuclear energy to “movements in society that over the past few decades have constantly scared people into believing that radioactivity and nuclear energy were dangerous things.
- He does not deny the need to act with great precision, but thinks that “the panic has been created by opponents of nuclear energy, some of whom have a populist approach and who, in fact, are often insufficiently informed about how this kind of technology works and the safety measures that are taken”.
- Belgian nuclear reactors are known to be very safe, says Severijns. “An explosion like that of Fukushima is not possible with our reactors. There are systems to prevent this. I think panic football was mainly created by social media. »
As a reminder, the Belgian government has just signed a preliminary agreement with Engie for the extension of the two most recent nuclear reactors – Doel 4 and Tihange 3 – for a period of 10 years, starting from 2026. For now, the oldest reactors in the Belgian nuclear fleet will be extinguished in 2025, even though the political debate about this is still alive.
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