Belgium plans full takeover of nuclear fleet from France's Engie, reversing 2000s phase-out

Belgium's government plans to buy out the country's nuclear power fleet from French utility Engie in what Prime Minister Bart De Wever called 'a full takeover,' the two sides announced in a joint statement. The deal would cover all seven of Belgium's ageing reactors and aim for an agreement by 1 October.

'This government is choosing safe, affordable and sustainable energy, with less dependence on fossil fuel imports and more control over our own supply,' De Wever wrote on X. The takeover would suspend plans to dismantle the five reactors shut between 2022 and 2025; only two — at the Doel and Tihange plants — are currently operational, and their licences were recently extended to 2035.

The decision reverses early-2000s legislation that, on safety grounds, prohibited new nuclear builds and capped the operating life of existing reactors at 40 years. All seven Belgian reactors had at one point been set to close by 2025. The joint statement said Brussels also wants to extend operations of the existing reactors and 'develop new nuclear capacity' in Belgium, framing the move as serving 'security of supply, climate objectives, industrial resilience and socio-economic prosperity.'

The Belgian fleet has been controversial in neighbouring countries. Tensions flared in 2015 over plans to operate reactors past their 40-year design life, and the German city of Aachen began offering iodine tablets to residents in 2017 over safety fears about the Tihange site after closures over cracks and water leaks. Belgium joins a wider European trend reversing earlier reluctance on nuclear investment.