Belgian power company Engie Electrabel on 18 December announced it had extended the outage at Doel 1 until 15 March for further repairs on a water leak.
Doel 1&2 had been scheduled to close down in 2015 but the government extended their lives by ten years. However, both reactors have been offline since April after a leak was discovered in Doel 1’s water cooling system. Doel 2 will be offline until 28 January so that technicians can complete checking the systems and equipment, Engie Electrabel said. In November, the company said Doel 1 would be offline until 31 January and that Doel 2 would resume operation on 31 December.
Six of Belgium’s seven nuclear units (four at Doel and three at Tihange) had been offline for maintenance and repair in recent months. Tihange 1 resumed operation in November after upgrading and refuelling. Tihange 2&3 are offline due to concrete degradation issues. However, Engie Electrabel said Tihange 3 could be back online by 7 January, some two months ahead of schedule, conditional on approval from the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (Fanc). Doel 3&4 were also closed to investigate concrete degradation but Doel 3 returned to service in 2017 and Doel 4 on 13 December.
Photo: Belgium's Doel nuclear plant
