physics

Nuclear power in Belgium

Nuclear power in Belgium is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nuclear power in Belgium rather than just read about it. In short: Belgium has two nuclear power plants operating with a net capacity of 2,085 MWe. Electricity consumption in Belgium has increased slowly since 1990, and in 2016, nuclear power provided 51.3%, 41 TWh per year, of the country's electricity.

Key takeaways

Nuclear power in Belgium belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nuclear power in Belgium to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nuclear power in Belgium from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Belgium has two nuclear power plants operating with a net capacity of 2,085 MWe. Electricity consumption in Belgium has increased slowly since 1990, and in 2016, nuclear power provided 51.3%, 41 TWh per year, of the country's electricity. The country's first commercial nuclear power plant began operating in 1974. Belgium decided to phase out nuclear power generation completely by 2025. In March 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Belgium decided to postpone closing of two reactors by 10 additional years. In 2025, the Belgian parliament voted to drop the phaseout of nuclear energy, and to further postpone closing the existing reactors, as well as potentially building new reactors. In 2025, nuclear power produced 34% of the country’s electricity.

History Belgium has a long industrial history in the nuclear sector. Biraco in Olen, which regularly hosted Marie and Pierre Curie, was at the start of the industrial production of radium in 1922.

The uranium ore used was discovered in 1913 in Katanga in then Belgian Congo by Union Minière du Haut-Katanga. The ore found in the Shinkolobwe mine was exceptionally rich. Even before World War II the United States expressed interest, and in 1942 when they required uranium for the Manhattan Project, Belgium was one of the few countries with a reasonable stock of uranium ore, and Edgar Sengier struck a deal. For the following decade Belgium, through Belgian Congo, was one of the main suppliers of uranium to the United States. This trade relationship resulted in Belgium being granted access to nuclear technology for civil purposes. In 1952, this led to establishing SCK•CEN, a study center for nuclear research in Mol. The first reactor BR1 (Belgian Reactor 1) became critical in 1956. Construction of BR2 started the following year. The BR2 reactor is one of the five main reactors producing molybdenum-99 that decays to technetium-99m, the radioisotope used in more than 80% of diagnostic imaging procedures in nuclear medicine. In 1954, Belgium was one of the founding members of CERN, and three years later it was one of the original signatories of the Euratom Treaty. In 1957, a site in Dessel, near SCK•CEN, was chosen as the location for Eurochemic. Thirteen OECD countries (Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Turkey, Portugal, Spain) joined forces to build a pilot nuclear reprocessing installation. The atoomwijk, a housing project for workers on private land near the site, was a scientific village unique in Europe at the time.

In 1958, the Brussels World's Fair Expo 58 was to be powered by BR3. The reactor was to be built in Brussels, and open to visitors. Ultimately safety concerns and administrative problems moved the reactor to the SCK•CEN site. The other iconic symbol of the interest in nuclear technology at the time, the Atomium, housed a photo exhibition. In 1959, the Trico Center was established in Kinshasa. Its TRICO I research reactor was the first nuclear reactor on the African continent. The US-built BR3 was connected to the grid in 1962, making it the first pressurized water reactor in Western Europe. SCK•CEN played a key role in developing MOX fuel. In 1960, near the same site, NV Belgonuclaire, a joint venture between SCK•CEN, Electrabel and Tractebel received its first plutonium from the United States, with the goal of industrially producing MOX fuel. In 1963 BR3 was loaded with MOX fuel and was the first reactor in the world to generate electricity this way. In 1967, the commercial Chooz-A plant in France, close to the Belgian border, was connected to the grid. It had been constructed by a French-Belgian joint venture Sena (Société d'énergie nucléaire Franco-belge des Ardennes) to house a French-Belgian prototype pressurized water reactor, the first one built in Western Europe. It was jointly operated and delivered electricity to both countries. In 1972, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany participated in building the failed SNR-300 fast breeder reactor. In 1973, Belgium and four other European countries formed Eurodif. The first commercial nuclear power plant in Belgium, Doel 1, came into service in 1974. Six more reactors were connected to the grid during the following ten years. Plans for an eighth reactor were scrapped, instead utilities Electrabel and SPE took a 25% participation in the French Chooz-B nuclear power plant. In 1974, Eurochemics ceased reprocessing. In 1987 BR3 was the first pressurized water reactor to be shut down in Europe. Decommissioning BR3 and Eurochemic has given Belgium significant expertise in the decommissioning of nuclear sites. Belgium is currently preparing to contribute to Generation IV reactor research through the MYRRHA project.

Nuclear power plants

There are two commercial nuclear power plants operational with seven reactors:

Doel Nuclear Power Station on the Scheldt river, near the port of Antwerp, and Tihange Nuclear Power Station on the Meuse. Both stations are operated by Electrabel. Dessel is home to two sites for the production of nuclear fuel. One operated by FBFC, the other is being decommissioned and belonged to the Belgonucleaire company. There are several test reactors at the SCK•CEN site in Mol. The Thetis research reactor of Ghent University is being decommissioned, and has had its fuel removed from site. None of these research reactors supply electricity to the grid. The French nuclear power plant in Chooz is 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the Belgian border and surrounded on three sides by Belgian territory. The area around the power plant is subject to the same precautions as if there was a Belgian nuclear installation in the center.

Waste

Past Belgium is one of the thirteen countries who have dumped radioactive waste in the ocean. This practise was permanently halted in 1982. Prior to parliament placing a moratorium on nuclear reprocessing in 1993, 670 tonnes of spent fuel from the commercial reactors was processed in La Hague, France. The last return transport of highly radioactive waste, mainly fission products, took place in 2007. Other types of waste will be returning from La Hague to Belgium until 2019. Spent fuel from the BR2 reactor at SCK•CEN was reprocessed in Dounreay, Scotland.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nuclear power in Belgium

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nuclear power in Belgium claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nuclear power in Belgium before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nuclear power in Belgium ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nuclear power in Belgium

In research: Nuclear power in Belgium appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nuclear power in Belgium in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nuclear power in Belgium is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Electric power in Belgium, Nuclear power by country, Nuclear power in Belgium, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nuclear power in Belgium outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nuclear power in Belgium in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nuclear power in Belgium means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nuclear power in Belgium out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nuclear power in Belgium in simple terms?

Why does Nuclear power in Belgium matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nuclear power in Belgium?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nuclear power in Belgium.