Doel Nuclear Power Station

Doel Nuclear Power Station
Country	Belgium
Location	Doel
Coordinates	51°19′31″N 4°15′40″E
Status	Operational
Construction began	1969
Commission date	15 February 1975
Owner	Electrabel
Electrabel
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	pressurized water reactors
Reactor supplier	ACECOWEN, FRAMACECO
Power generation
Units operational	2 x 433 MW 1 x 1006 MW 1 x 1047 MW
Nameplate capacity	2,919 MW
Annual net output	21,670 GW·h
External links
Website	nuclear.engie-electrabel.be/en/powerplant/doel-nuclear-power-station
Commons	Related media on Commons

The Doel Nuclear Power Station is one of the two nuclear power plants in Belgium. The plant is located on the bank of the Scheldt, near the village of Doel in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The Belgian energy corporation Electrabel is the plant's largest stakeholder. The plant employs 800 workers and covers an area of 80 hectares (200 acres).

The station is located in the most densely populated area of all nuclear power stations in Europe, with 9 million inhabitants within a radius of 75 kilometres (47 mi).

Reactors

Nuclear power plant of Doel

The plant consists of four second-generation pressurized water reactors with a total capacity of 2,919 MW_e, making it the second largest nuclear power plant in Belgium, after Nuclear Plant Tihange. Its four units are rated as follows:

• Doel 1 : 433 MW_e
• Doel 2 : 433 MW_e
• Doel 3 : 1006 MW_e
• Doel 4 : 1047 MW_e

Doel 1 and 2 came online in 1975, while Doel 3 and 4 came online in 1982 and 1985, respectively.

Doel 1, 2 and 4 reactors are based on designs by Westinghouse and where supplied by ACECOWEN a consortium between ACEC, Cockerill and Westinghouse. The Doel 3 reactor is based on a design by Framatome and was supplied by the FRAMACECO consortium (Framatome-ACEC-Cockerill).

Doel 1 and 2 had a license to operate for 40 years, but can operate for a further 10 years with a life-extension approved by the regulator. On 15 February 2015, Doel 1 was shut down after 40 years of operation, while discussions continued on a life extension. On 30 November 2015, the Belgian government announced that Doel 1 and 2 will operate for another 10 years, until 2025. They were both succesfully restarted during the final week of 2015.

Cooling towers

The station as seen from the opposite bank of the Schelde

With a height of 176 meters, the two cooling towers are the most visible structure in the Port of Antwerp. Due to its proximity to the Dutch-Belgian border, the towers and the accompanying vapor can be seen in large parts of Dutch provinces of Zeeland and western North Brabant. Since 1995, one of the cooling towers has hosted a nest of peregrine falcons.

2012 Doel 3 inspection

Doel 3 was shut down at the beginning of June 2012 for a planned inspection. The ultrasonic inspection revealed that there were thousands of semi laminar flaws in the reactor vessel's steel rings forged by Rotterdam Drydocks. These were determined to be hydrogen flakes, which influence steel brittleness and vessel pressure. The reactor remained offline for further inspections and assessment for a year. Eventually the nuclear regulator judged that the reactor could still operate safely and it was restarted June 3, 2013. The restart, however, was linked to an action plan concerning further investigations of the material properties of the reactor vessel. At the end of March 2014 the test results revealed a different outcome compared to what was anticipated by experts. At the moment no proper clarification for this outcome has been found. Therefore, the operator (GDF Suez) decided to stop the affected power plant until a clarification can be found and further operation of the powerplant is declared safe.

2014 Doel 4 turbine incident

In August 2014 there was a major incident in the non-nuclear part of the plant: the main turbine overheated when it suddenly found itself operating without oil. Rather than a leak it turned out that a valve was opened which rapidly evacuated the 65,000 liters of oil to an underground storage tank. This procedure is to be used in case of fire and is normally secured with a padlock. Hence authorities and the plant operator suspect that this was an act of deliberate sabotage. The unit was eventually back on the grid at 19 December 2014. Combined with the outage of Doel 3 and Tihange 2 blackouts were not ruled out for the winter period of 2014-2015.

No filters present in the high pressure valves of the reactor vessels

In answer at questions of the Grünen in the Bondsdag, the German parliament, the German governement replied that the outdated Belgian nuclear power plants have no filtered pressure relief valves installed. In German nuclear reactors these were already built in after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986, other countries followed this exemple around or after 2011, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This kind of filters should prevent that radioactive air unfiltered leaves the pressure vessel. According to the German Government the nuclear reactors in Tihange are missing these emergency pressure filters too. This news caused quite some unrest in the national and local press around these nuclear reactors.

See also

• List of nuclear power stations
• Tihange Nuclear Power Station

External links

• Electrabel webpage about the plant
  • Press release 1 December 2015: Signature of the convention between ENGIE and the Belgian government for extending Doel 1 and Doel 2 and new nuclear contribution system