Monitoring Desk
BRUSSELS: Belgium is set to close down an old nuclear reactor on Tuesday that has long caused of dispute in neighboring Germany.
The reactor known as Tihange 2 is the second that to be taken offline by Belgium during the last four months as part of a plan to dissuade itself off nuclear power.
Officials in Germany have for years called for the old facility to be shut down over security concerns.
Belgium and Germany
Brussels refused those calls — but was finally set to turn off the reactor just on Tuesday as part of its longer-term planning.
Germany’s environment minister Steffi Lemke told local media that the shut down of the plant guarantees increased security in the two countries.
Tihange 2 reactor is located just 50 kilometres from Belgium’s border with Germany.
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The assurance of a gradual phase-out of nuclear power has been preserved in Belgian law since 2003.
However, Belgium last year had decided to postpone its planned exit in 2025 by a decade due to high energy prices caused by war in Ukraine.
Belgium announced an agreement with French to extend the life of two other of its reactors by a decade.
