Doel nuclear power plant

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Doel nuclear power plant
Aerial view of the nuclear power plant
Aerial view of the nuclear power plant
location
Doel Nuclear Power Plant (Belgium)
Doel nuclear power plant
Coordinates 51 ° 19 '29 "  N , 4 ° 15' 31"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 19 '29 "  N , 4 ° 15' 31"  E
Country: BelgiumBelgium Belgium
Data
Owner: Indivision Doel (EBES, INTERCOM, UNERG)
Operator: Electrabel M.V. Nucleaire Production
Project start: 1969
Commercial operation: 15th February 1975

Active reactors (gross):

4 (2963 MW)
Energy fed in in 2017: 20,681.35 GWh
Energy fed in since commissioning: 731,560 GWh
Was standing: May 13, 2018
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .
f1

The Doel nuclear power plant consists of four blocks , each with a pressurized water reactor . It is located in the district of Doel (municipality of Beveren ) on the Scheldt in the port of Antwerp , about 15 kilometers northwest of the city center, in Belgium .

It is one of two operating nuclear power plant sites in Belgium; the other is the Tihange nuclear power plant . All Belgian nuclear power plants are operated by Engie Electrabel , which is the Belgian subsidiary of the French group Engie .

Unit 1 has an installed capacity (electrical) of 433  megawatts (MW) , Unit 2 of 433 MW, Unit 3 of 1006 MW and Unit 4 of 1039 MW. Blocks 1, 2 and 4 were supplied by ACECOWEN ( ACEC - Cockerill - Westinghouse ), Block 3 by FRAMACECO ( Framatome -ACEC- Cockerill ).

Of all nuclear power plants in Europe, Doel is the one with the most densely populated area: around nine million people live within a radius of 75 kilometers.

history

Construction on reactor block 1 began on July 1, 1969. Around five years later, the reactor became critical ; commercial operation began on February 15, 1975. The thermal output is 1311 MW. In more than 40 years of operation, Doel-1 has generated around 128 TWh (= 128,000 GWh) of electricity. Doel-4 began commercial operations on July 1, 1985.

The average availability of Doel-1 was 85.6%. In 2015 it was only available 13.0% of the time. There were major interruptions in the operation of reactor 2 in 1983 and 1990 (availability 1990 = 59.0%). Doel-3 had the longest business interruptions in 2015 (1.1% availability) and Doel-4 in 1994 (41.5% availability). Despite some incidents and other operational losses such. B. due to maintenance work, the average availability for all four reactors was over 84%.

In October 2014 it became known that from 2009 to 2012 a jihadist known to the police had worked as a technician in the high-security area of ​​the Doel nuclear power plant; he was active in the Islamist organization Sharia4Belgium . In 2014, Morocco-born Ilyass Boughalabr went to Syria, where he allegedly died in 2014 as a fighter for IS .

security concept

Blocks 3 and 4 each have three strings (3 × 100%) capacity for emergency supply and emergency cooling , with individually assigned emergency power diesel generators . There is also capacity for both blocks in a building bunkered against external influences (3 × 50%).

Blocks 1 and 2 together have four emergency feed or emergency cooling lines (4 × 100%) with assigned emergency diesel engines as basic equipment. Another block in common is the additional bunkered emergency cooling with associated diesels (2 × 100%).

All blocks have a double containment .

Decommissioning

The Verhofstadt I Government decided, in 2002 a nuclear phase-out by 2025. Their bill was also on 6 December 2002 by the House of Representatives and on 16 January 2003 the Senate adopted. At the end of 2011 the nuclear phase-out was confirmed by the Di Rupo government . In November 2011, the operator stated that it would take Doel-1 and Doel-2 off the grid in 2015, as the investments of around 1 billion euros required to extend the service life would no longer be economically viable - also in view of the foreseeable end of nuclear energy . The units commissioned in 1975 are designed for a term of 40 years. In the summer of 2013, the federal government no longer spoke of a shutdown in 2015, but in 2016.

On December 19, 2014, the meanwhile elected government Michel I announced that the term of Doel-1 and Doel-2 should be extended by ten years until 2025. Belgium has too little in-house production of electricity in the cold winter months and electricity can be cut off. Before that, units Doel-3 and Tihange-2 had been shut down due to hairline cracks in the reactor pressure vessel . At the time, there was great uncertainty as to whether the reactors could go back into operation. For the extension of the duration of Doel-1 to 2025, the Belgian nuclear authority FANK demanded safety investments of around 500 million euros each for the Doel-1 and Doel-2 reactors. Power plant operator Electrabel announced at the end of 2014 that these new investments would only be made if the extension of the term is both legally secured and economically sensible. On February 15, 2015 - exactly 40 years after the start of commercial operation - Doel-1 was therefore temporarily shut down. On November 30, 2015, the government and the Engie Group signed an agreement to extend the term by ten years. Electrabel tried to present the extension of the term as necessary. However, the extension of the term was not decided by parliament until summer 2016. A planned vote was postponed in July 2016.

In April 2016, the governments of Germany (called Merkel III ) and Luxembourg the government Michel I on, Doel and Tihange-3-2 shut down, are taken up extensive security measures in the plants.

At the beginning of March 2016, the then Environment Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Remmel ( Cabinet Kraft II ), declared that North Rhine- Westphalia, together with Rhineland-Palatinate , would lodge a complaint with the UN and the EU Commission against the term extensions for Doel-1 and Doel-2 as well as for Tihange-1 insert. Environmental associations also sued against the extension of the term. In 2019 the European Court of Justice ruled that the extension of the duration of Doel 1 and 2 violated EU law because no environmental impact assessment had taken place. The Court also ruled that a cross-border environmental impact assessment according to Article 7 of the EIA Directive must be carried out in the event of the possible significant effects on neighboring countries. So far (as of July 2019) it is still unclear whether the systems can still be operated or must now be switched off.

On March 5, 2020, the Constitutional Court of Belgium overturned the law for a ten-year extension of the service life of the Doel 1 and Doel 2 nuclear reactors and ruled that this law would have required an environmental impact assessment and an objection procedure.

Accidents

On August 4, 1982, after the failure of the 380 kV network and strong voltage fluctuations in the reserve network, an emergency power situation occurred in the two oldest Doel blocks. Four diesel generators started, but could not guarantee the necessary supply for cold start (see decay heat ) due to errors . As a last reserve, a power-independent cooling system powered by the steam from the decay heat came into action in both reactor blocks until the power supply was restored after about an hour.

On March 18, 2011, damage to the water pump in Unit 4 was discovered and classified as a level 2 incident on the International Rating Scale for Nuclear Events .

Reactor 1

Doel-1 was shut down on April 23, 2018. The operator later announced that there was a leak in an emergency cooling system in the radioactive area of ​​the nuclear reactor. One prefers planned maintenance work anyway; Doel-1 is expected to remain switched off until October 2018. The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) has now assigned this incident to level 0 on the INES scale.

Cracks in the pressure vessel of reactor 3

Doel-3 was shut down until further notice in August 2012 because cracks were discovered in the reactor pressure vessel . The safety relevance of the damage is still unclear. There are "numerous indications" of defects in the steel of the reactor vessel; also recommended the Belgian nuclear regulator FANK every 21 further reactor vessel of the same manufacturer ( Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij ) (they are including in the nuclear power plant Ringhals 2 (Sweden) , the NPP Borssele (Netherlands) and in Leibstadt and Mühleberg nuclear power plant (Switzerland) in Use). Operating German nuclear power plants are not affected.

In 2012, the nuclear regulatory authority ordered that the emergency cooling water (over 1 million liters) must be preheated to over 45 ° C. The cracked safety container could suffer a thermal shock if the cooling water is too cold. The maximum flow temperature is 50 ° C. From this temperature, the reactor is no longer adequately cooled.

The daily newspaper Le Monde announced this on August 8, 2012. FANK published a six-page information paper.

An ultrasonic inspection by the FANC revealed 8000 cracks on the reactor shell. In spring 2013, FANC announced that the affected Belgian reactors Doel-3 and Tihange-2 had been thoroughly checked. Jan Bens, head of FANC, said that both reactors were "101 percent safe" and that nothing stood in the way of restarting. Jan Bens was previously head of the Doel nuclear facility from 2004. At the beginning of June 2013 Doel-3 and Tihange-2 were restarted.

In March 2014, Doel-3 and Tihange-2 were shut down again by order of the authorities. Tests in the Mol research reactor with the reactor vessel material from the two factories had produced "unexpected results" with regard to mechanical resistance. The standstill lasted until spring 2015 for the time being. German media suspected that due to the fact that thousands of cracks had been discovered and the reactor pressure vessel could not be replaced, the blocks would be about to be finally shut down. In August 2014, the operator Electrabel assumed that it would be able to bring the reactors back on the grid in summer 2015. Belgian media wrote that a final decision had not yet been made. On February 13, 2015, Jan Bens announced that the two reactor pressure vessels had not 10,000, but more than 16,000 cracks. On November 17, 2015, the Belgian nuclear regulatory authority published its permission to restart the Doel-3 and Tihange-2 reactor blocks. The cracks are not a risk to the safety of the facilities. On December 4, 2015, the stop-tihange.org initiative handed over 160,000 online signatures against restarting the two reactors at the Belgian Ministry of the Interior.

Doel-3 was restarted on December 21, 2015 after 20 months; Doel-2 followed on December 24th. On December 25th, Doel-3 was taken off the grid again due to a leak in the cooling system. The recommissioning, planned for December 28, had to be postponed to January 6, 2016 because a defective switch was discovered. During the night of January 2nd to 3rd, 2016, it became known that Doel-1 had automatically switched off and was brought into a safe operating state. Details were not initially known. According to official information, there was no danger to the environment or people at any time.

On February 1, 2016, the WDR announced that the cooling water in the Tihange-2 and Doel-3 nuclear reactors is being preheated for emergency cooling. Apparently the strength of the two cracked reactor pressure vessels is even worse than publicly admitted.

Doel-3 was switched off again on April 21, 2016.

On May 23, 2017, Doel-3 was shut down after an incident in the non-nuclear part of the facility, but went back online shortly afterwards.

Turbine damage in block 4

On August 5, 2014, Doel-4 automatically shut down after severe turbine damage due to overheating, after an unknown person had let around 65,000 liters of oil from the turbine leak. In March 2016, the Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety , Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter , announced in response to a parliamentary question that the information obtained so far indicated an internal perpetrator . During the terrorist attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016, the operator denied access to the facility for “all employees who were not required for immediate operation”. In 2014, the signals to the control center were also manipulated.

Since two reactors, Doel-3 and Tihange-2, were also out of operation for a long time due to cracks in the pressure vessel, an emergency plan was drawn up against feared electricity bottlenecks in winter. Because of the technical problems, three of the seven Belgian power reactors were out of operation for a long time at the end of 2014, which means that 51.9% of the output of the nuclear power plants or around 25% of the total output of all Belgian power plants was not available. On December 19, 2014, reactor 4 was restarted after extensive repairs to the turbine.

Alkali-silica reaction in Doel-3 and Tihange-3

In September 2018, during a planned inspection, the operator Engie Electrabel discovered crumbling concrete in the bunker buildings Doel 3 and Tihange 3, where the emergency systems are located. Only after further investigations did the FANC give permission to restart the reactors. According to the FANC, the disintegration of the concrete has no impact on the immediate vicinity of the reactors. The restart of the Doel-1 and Doel-2 reactors had to be postponed from October to December 2018 due to necessary maintenance work. After the inspection of Doel-4 and Tihange-2, there was also damage to the concrete in the ceilings.

Others

One of the outgoing power lines crosses the Scheldt at the Scheldt overhead line crossing Doel . One of the two 170 meter high masts stands on a caisson in the Scheldt.

Data of the reactor blocks

The Doel nuclear power plant has a total of four blocks :

Reactor block Reactor type net
power 		gross
power 		start of building Network
synchronization 		Commercialization
of essential operation 		switching off
processing
Doel-1 Pressurized water reactor 433 MW 454 MW 07/01/1969 08/28/1974 02/15/1975 Template: future / in 5 years(2025)
Doel-2 433 MW 454 MW 09/01/1971 08/21/1975 December 01, 1975 Template: future / in 5 years(2025)
Doel-3 1006 MW 1056 MW 01/01/1975 06/23/1982 10/01/1982 Template: future / in 2 years(2022)
Doel-4 1039 MW 1090 MW December 01, 1978 April 8, 1985 07/01/1985 Template: future / in 5 years(2025)

  • Aerial view

  • Doel nuclear power plant, view from the south; in the foreground the old village mill

  • The Doel nuclear power plant

  • The nuclear power plant

  • The nuclear power plant

See also

Web links

Commons : Kernkraftwerk Doel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Information on the distance
  2. ↑ Kerncentrale Doel in densely populated area , deredactie.be
  3. ↑ www.iaea.org
  4. ↑ www.iaea.org
  5. ↑ www.iaea.org
  6. ↑ www.iaea.org
  7. ↑ www.deutschlandfunk.de March 18, 2016: Fear of the dirty bomb
  8. ^ Electrabel: Zone de production nucléaire Doel , 2000
  9. ↑ Dries Gellynck: De Kernstop in België: Een Economische Analyze , Universiteit Gent, Faculteit Economie en Bedrijfskunde, Academiejaar 2002–2003 (PDF, 981 kB).
  10. ↑ Three Belgian nuclear power plants on the verge of extinction . In: Aachener Zeitung , November 7, 2011.
  11. ↑ Out for seven reactors: Belgium wants to phase out nuclear power from 2015 . In: Spiegel-Online , October 31, 2011.
  12. ↑ Energy: GDF Suez boss regrets the closure of Belgian nuclear power plants "Industrial Cathedrals". In: Grenz-Echo, June 10, 2013, p. 5 (interview with GDF Suez boss Gérard Mestrallet).
  13. ↑ Doel likes openblijven, maar zal toch stilvallen . In: De Standaard , December 19, 2014, page 6.
  14. ^ Belgian reactor shutdown imminent , world nuclear news, February 12, 2015.
  15. ↑ Extended run time for Altmeiler Doel 1 and 2 sealed , Belgischer Rundfunk , December 1, 2015.
  16. ↑ Signature of the convention between ENGIE and the Belgian government for extending Doel 1 and Doel 2 and new nuclear contribution system ( Memento of the original dated December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release from December 1, 2015, Electrabel (PDF) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.electrabel.com
  17. ↑ Le vrai du faux sur la prolongation de Doel 1 et 2 ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Electrabel. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.electrabel.com
  18. ↑ Chamber postpones vote on Doel 1 and 2 , Grenzecho, July 1, 2016.
  19. ↑ Cabinet joins the German government. Luxembourg is urging: Doel and Tihange switch off , Luxemburger Wort , April 22, 2016.
  20. ↑ NRW files a complaint against nuclear power plants ( memento of the original from March 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Ruhr Nachrichten , March 8, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ruhrnachrichten.de
  21. ↑ NRW wants to file a complaint against nuclear power plants in Belgium , Kölner Stadtanzeiger , March 8, 2016.
  22. ↑ Heuel-Fabianek, B., Lennartz, R. (2009): The examination of the environmental compatibility of projects in nuclear law . Radiation Protection PRACTICE, 3/2009. Complete article ( [1] )
  23. ↑ Belgium has violated EU law by extending the term . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 29, 2019, accessed on the same day.
  24. ↑ Loi du 28 juin 2015 modifiant la loi du 31 janvier 2003 sur la sortie progressive de l'énergie nucléaire à des fins de production industrial d'électricité afin de garantir la sécurité d'approvisionnement sur le plan énergétique
  25. ↑ spiegel.de March 5, 2020: Constitutional court overturns law for longer term of Doel nuclear power plant
  26. ↑ https://www.const-court.be (website of the Belgian Constitutional Court): Arrêt n ° 34/2020 du 5 mars 2020 (no.6328) (pdf)
  27. ↑ Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten SKI report IRS event code 022100: PDF ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stralsakerhetsmyndigheten.se
  28. ↑ brf.be
  29. ↑ www.electrabel.com ( Memento of March 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf)
  30. ↑ aachener-nachrichten.de April 29, 2018: Doel operator Electrabel on incident: "You don't have to panic"
  31. ↑ Revision of Doel 1 brought forward, PDF
  32. ↑ tagesschau.de
  33. ↑ Belgique: la fiabilité de deux réacteurs nucléaires remise en cause
  34. ↑ Belgium switches off nuclear power plants . In: N-tv.de , August 9, 2012. Accessed August 10, 2012.
  35. ^ "Flaw indications in the reactor pressure vessel of Doel 3 (as of September 3, 2012; PDF; 0.2 MB)
  36. ↑ Risse an Reaktorbehältern heise.de, August 21, 2012 , accessed on August 22, 2012
  37. ↑ Nuclear power: Green light for Doel 3 and Tihange 2. “Everything was tested and calculated”, in: Grenz-Echo, May 24, 2013, p. 6.
  38. ↑ Aachener Zeitung No. 124 from June 1, 2013
  39. ↑ Two Belgian nuclear reactors before the final shutdown? . In: heise.de , August 20, 2014. Accessed August 20, 2014.
  40. ↑ Tihange 2 and Doel 3 - More material weaknesses . In: Belgischer Rundfunk, February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  41. ↑ Belgium warns the rest of the world , taz, February 17, 2015.
  42. ↑ spiegel.de February 26, 2015: Nuclear power plants: Thousands of cracks discovered in Belgian reactors
  43. ↑ Aachener Zeitung : Bigger cracks: Out for Doel 3 and Tihange 2?
  44. ↑ The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control approves safe restart of Doel 3 and Tihange 2 ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.electrabel.com
  45. ↑ Belgischer Rundfunk: FANK gives the green light to restart Doel 3 and Tihange 2 , November 17, 2015.
  46. ↑ www.stop-tihange.org
  47. ↑ Belgium starts up the controversial reactor again
  48. ↑ Belgian reactor taken off the grid due to a defect
  49. ↑ Doel 3 reactor remains out of operation . In: Kleine Zeitung , December 28, 2015.
  50. ↑ Belgium's oldest reactor shuts down. , Spiegel Online, January 2, 2016
  51. ↑ Too ailing for cool cooling water
  52. ↑ Tagesschau: Reactor Doel 3 shut down again - Belgium reports "abnormality"
  53. ↑ news.ORF.at. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  54. ↑ a b zeit.de: Fear of the nuclear attack
  55. ↑ Belgium after the terrorist attacks: Fear of one's own employees in the nuclear power plant in Der Tagesspiegel online, on March 25, 2016, accessed on March 25, 2016
  56. ↑ No trace of the saboteur spiegel.de, on August 17, 2018
  57. ↑ Belgium's nuclear power plants are failing . In: Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen , August 14, 2014. Accessed August 20, 2014.
  58. ↑ Electricity production: Belgium shuts down third nuclear reactor . In: Spiegel-Online , August 15, 2014. Accessed August 20, 2014.
  59. ↑ Doel 4 is started up again . Belgian Broadcasting, December 19, 2014
  60. ↑ AD.nl (September 19, 2018) dacaying concrete in reactors Doel en Tihange
  61. ↑ De Tijd (September 19, 2018) Also concrete disintegration in nuclear reactors doel 4 de tihange 2
  62. ↑ Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "Belgium: Nuclear Power Reactors" (English)