Together with the US, Italy and Romania Belgium is joining an international consortium to develop small nuclear power plants. Our country has already invested €100 million in research and wants to bring the technology to market by 2040. "There are environmental and economic advantages," says Peter Baeten, director general of the nuclear research centre SCK CEN in Mol (Antwerp Province).
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Belgium to build small nuclear reactors: 'safer and less waste-producing'
Colin Clapson
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"We have mainly built large reactors and we have gone bigger and bigger over the years in order to maintain an economy of scale. Instead, we now want to build several small reactors, the components of which we can eventually also start making ourselves. That can offer an economic advantage," Peter Baeten told VRT.
"The intention is to develop lead-cooled SMRs, small modular reactors, together with the three other countries. The SMRs work with a new cooling technology that uses liquid lead to dissipate heat. That is innovative."
Less waste and safer
The new technology is also more sustainable than large nuclear power plants, Baeten explains. "We have been specifically tasked by the government to look at technology that reduces high-level radioactive waste as much as possible and makes better use of natural resources, such as uranium".
"That is why we deliberately did not choose the water-cooling technology that current nuclear power plants work with and went for lead-cooling technology. As a result, the small modular nuclear reactors have advantages both in economic and ecological terms," Baeten says.
In addition, that technology should also ensure that the small reactors are safer. "When you stop a reactor, there is always heat that needs to be dissipated. Today that is done using pumps. These in turn need electricity, which has to come from diesel generators or the grid says Baeten"
This can then lead to safety risks.
"Because with the new technology we are dissipating heat in a different way, namely based on natural circulation, we are talking about a safer way. Hot water rises, while cold water falls, all without the use of a pump. In that case, safety relies on natural principles and they cannot fail. Hence we speak of passive safety."
The SCK CEN nuclear research centre hopes the new plants will deliver the first energy between 2040 and 2045, depending on how quickly the consortium comes up with completed demonstration reactors.