“Belgium clings to controversial nuclear reactors”

Germany and Belgium have signed an agreement on improving the exchange of information on nuclear security, the federal environment ministry announced in a press release. The neighbouring countries also instituted a nuclear commission that will meet at least once a year and agreed on mutual visits of nuclear power stations. Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands previously criticised Belgium over the safety of its nuclear reactors Doel 3 and Tihange 2, which are close to their borders and have seen a series of incidents in the past, Hendrik Kafsack writes in a separate article in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Belgium recently prolonged the reactors’ life span until 2025 in spite of international objections, leading Germany’s environment minister, Barbara Hendricks, to say that “this remains a national issue and there’s nothing we can do about it,” Kafsack writes.

Read the BMUB press release in German here and the article in German here.

For background on the German nuclear exit, read the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out.