New nuclear power station an option?
According to sources of the press agency Belga, the cost analysis was a “purely theoretical” exercise in which account was taken of both “a minimalist and maximalist hypothesis”.
The Federal Government will discuss the study during today’s Federal Cabinet meeting.
At the end of last week, the Flemish nationalist party N-VA that is one of the four parties in the Federal Government coalition, appeared to give the green light to the Energy Pact that had been agreed up on by the 3 regional energy minister and the Federal Energy Minister.
The Flemish Nationalists have issues with the proposals to close Belgium’s 2 nuclear power stations by 2018. The party fears that doing so would threaten the continuity of supply and also that the alternatives such as gas-fired power stations would cost too much.
The Federal Government enlisted the service of Ghent University’s Johan Albrecht and the Federal Planning to assess the financial implications of various scenarios. One of which is reported to be the construction of a new nuclear power station in 2040.
The construction of a new nuclear power station was in the Flemish Nationalist’s election manifesto. However, this is something that they had not brought to the table during the negotiations.
The party’s representatives have instead suggested keeping the two existing nuclear power stations open.