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A protest action at the Belgian nuclear reactor Tihange near the German border a few years ago
Photo: Olivier Hoslet/ dpa
In Belgium, the country's most controversial nuclear reactor will be finally shut down on Tuesday.
After 40 years, block two of the Tihange nuclear power plant near Liège is to be shut down shortly before midnight, the operating company Engie announced.
For years, German politicians and opponents of nuclear power campaigned for the reactor to be phased out.
Experts had already found thousands of small cracks in the reactor pressure vessel in 2012.
After the shutdown, Belgium still has five nuclear reactors in operation.
Three of them are scheduled to go offline in 2025.
For the two youngest piles, however, the Belgian government and the energy company Engie have agreed to extend the term by ten years – they should therefore not be switched off until 2035.
The government justifies this by ensuring the security of energy supply, which has become doubtful due to the Ukraine war and the energy crisis.
However, the nuclear power plants in the neighboring country are worrying experts in Germany.
Dilapidated concrete parts were found on the piles from the 1970s and 1980s.
As early as 2003, Belgium had announced the phase-out of nuclear power, but this is dragging on.
kig/AFP