Name: DOEL Year of construction: 07.1969(1)-09.1971(2)-01.1975(3)-12.1978(4) Closing year: - Country: Belgium Coordinate: 51.324720, 4.258610 Blocks: 4 Reactor type: PWR Reactor model: WH2LP(1,2) - WH3LP(3,4) Status: ACTIVE Power MW: 454+454+1056+1090 Operator: Electrabel Provider: Framatome, ACEC, Cockerill
Doel NPS in Belgium - one of the oldest in Europe and also the largest Belgian NPS in terms of the number of reactors. It is ahead of Belgium's second operating nuclear power station, Tihange, in terms of total capacity.
Doel - located near the city of Antwerp, at the mouth of the Scheldt River, in the north of Belgium and on the border with the Netherlands. The Belgian NPS has a total of four reactors, two of which are type W 2-loop PWR and the other two are type W 3-loop PWR. Total power capacity of the Doel NPS is 2,911 MW. Launched in 1969, the station was already commissioned in 1974, so that, created in the 16th century, paintings by Bruegel - the famous Belgian artist - did not depict this NPS. Although widely known in the world are landscapes of the Belgian countryside by the hand of Pieter Brueghel.
Doel station is located in a very densely populated area of Europe, within a radius of 75 km of it more than 9 million people live, so it is not surprising that they tried to close it all the time.
With an initial term of 40 years, the operating period is planned to be extended by another 10 years. Nevertheless, largely due to the cause of the accident at Fukushima-1, the Belgian government has decided to close all of the country's NPSs by 2025.
In 2012, an ultrasonic inspection of the reactors revealed thousands of cracks in the vessel. Nevertheless, the Doel NPS was restarted after the inspection.
In 2014, an unknown person leaked oil from the steam turbine system of one of the reactors, which caused it to overheat and shut down the reactor. The culprit could not be found. However, later it turned out that the former Doel nuclear power station technician had joined the terrorist organization Islamic State.
On April 20, 2016, Barbara Hendricks, Minister of the Environment of Germany, the country closing its NPSs, asked to stop two reactors at Belgian NPPs, in particular this concerned the third unit of the Doel NPP. The request was supported by the leadership of Belgium's neighboring countries Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
On April 21, 2016, the third reactor at Doel was automatically shut down. The reasons for the shutdown have not yet been determined.
On January 10, 2017, the fourth reactor of Doel NPS was shut down accidentally after an unauthorized steam release in the non-nuclear part of the power unit. As a result of the accident, one of the NPP employees was seriously injured.