A nuclear
reactor at the Tihange power station in Belgium has been shut down following a
fire inside the plant. Germany has protested the power station near the border.
Deutsche Welle, 19 December 2015
Tihange's
reactor 1 was taken offline at 10:35 p.m. (2135 UTC) Friday following a fire in
a non-nuclear section of the plant, operator Electrabel told Belgium's private
Belga news agency.
Electrabel
said the incident did not impact workers, the public or the environment.
The power
plant - about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the German border city of Aachen -
is controversial in neighboring Germany.
Earlier
this week regional government authorities in Germany protested Belgium's decision to restart the plant's reactor 2 following a two-year shutdown after
discovery of micro-cracks in the reactor's cement casing in 2012.
Belgium's decision to delay decommissioning its nuclear reactors is controversial in neighboring Germany |
German
neighbors unhappy with nearby reactors
North
Rhine-Westphalia's state government has protested restarting the 40-year-old
reactors, claiming it is a safety hazard and located to millions of people as
four of Germany's 10 largest cities - Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen -
are located within the Rhineland state.
Seven
nuclear power plants produce about half of Belgium's electricity supply. Two
other 40-year-old reactors meant to be decommissioned this year - Doel 1 and 2
- are being kept online for another decade to help meet domestic demand.
Belgium
said it's committed to phase out nuclear power entirely by 2025. Germany is
also phasing out its nuclear plants, with the remaining slated to close by
2022.
jar/sms (dpa, AFP)
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