The country of Luxembourg has lodged a formal letter of complaint with Belgium after the government’s decision on Friday to delay its planned nuclear exit, extending the life of two reactors by a decade amid concerns regarding energy supply that have only worsened in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Dismayed and stunned by the Belgian government's decision to postpone the nuclear phase-out again,” Luxembourg’s Energy Minister Claude Turmes said in a tweet on Saturday.
“This decision jeopardises the safety of our Luxembourg citizens. We have sent an urgent letter to the Belgian government.”
Long-held concerns over nuclear power
Luxembourg and Germany have both long been wary of nuclear power plants in France and Belgium, reports Luxembourg Times.
They’ve previously called for the closure of the nuclear site at Cattenom in eastern France, located just 20 kilometres south of Luxembourg City, and earlier this year sent a joint letter to France's nuclear safety authority expressing concerns about the plant, which has seen “several minor incidents over the last decade.”
Consterné et stupéfait face à la décision du gouvernement belge de repousser à nouveau la sortie du nucléaire. Cette décision met en péril la sécurité de nos cocitoyens luxembourgeois. Nous avons adressé un courrier urgent au gouvernement belge. @DieschbourgC @alexanderdecroo
— Claude Turmes (@ClaudeTurmes) March 19, 2022
Luxembourg’s government said back in 2019 that it was opposed to an extension of Cattenom’s life cycle beyond its expiration date of 2040, during a review by France’s nuclear safety authority.
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Belgium had originally planned to abandon nuclear power entirely by 2035, but Prime Minister Alexander De Croo cited “years of uncertainty” and the necessity for Belgium to safeguard its own energy sovereignty as the driving factors behind the decision to move that deadline to 2035.
