According to the law for nuclear phase out in Belgium, the third unit of the Doel NPP (referred to as “Doel 3”) was permanently shut down in September 2022 after 40 years of operation. Doel 3 entered in so-called Post Operational Phase (POP, see Figure 1), during which the licensee prepares notably its safe dismantling.

During shutdown inspection, the Licensee noticed that several welds at the valve were broken, causing one of the parts to end up in the primary circuit. 

NIRAS/ONDRAF, the Belgian National Agency for Radioactive Waste and Fissile Materials, was granted a license for the construction and exploitation of a Near-Surface Disposal facility for disposal of low and intermediate level short lived radioactive waste. 

In order to establish the Nuclear Safety Requirements Document (NSRD) for the post-operational phase (POP) of the Belgian NPPs, the licensee (Electrabel) applied an efficient Integrated Safety Approach (ISA) based on Bel V recommandations.

Bel V is currently actively working on the preparation of the post-operational phase of the life of the Belgian NPPs. This phase directly follows the definitive shutdown and aims in a time period of approximately 5 years at evacuating the spent fuels and the operational waste from the units, and at preparing the dismantling activities.

The main objectives of the Uncertainty Management multi-Actor Network (UMAN) are to provide an opportunity to different actors of EU Member States involved in radioactive waste management programmes to share their experiences and views on uncertainty management and to identify emerging needs that could be addressed in subsequent waves of the European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management (EURAD).

For many years, even decades, there have been endless discussions on what values to use when performing clearance based on surface specific measurements. The definition of contamination in the Transport Regulation by IAEA and an old study by Fairbairn, gave rise to the numbers 0.04 Bq/cm2 for radiotoxic alpha-emitters and 0.4 Bq/cm2 for beta/gamma emitters. These values are widely used, but also often contested and challenged. Only a thorough, comprehensive study on the derivation of nuclide specific surface clearance levels can give a founded answer to the raised issues.

Historically, the first fire protection regulations to be implemented could be described as prescriptive (or deterministic), where the performance requirements of fire protection equipment are fixed. An example of such requirement is the need to segregate Structures, Systems & Components (SSCs) important for safety with fire-rated barriers ensuring standard resistance to fire propagation between compartments (e.g. for 3 hours according to U.S. NRC regulations). Such ratings are based on standardized testing procedures (ASTM, NFPA, EN...) performed under defined conditions (like the ISO 834 time-temperature curve).

There is a need for the construction of supplementary interim storage capacity for spent fuel in Belgium, because of the definitive shutdown of the 7 nuclear power plants in the next 4 years.

There is a need for the construction of supplementary interim storage capacity for spent fuel in Belgium, because of the definitive shutdown of the 7 nuclear power plants in the next 4 years