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On 28 August at 23:31 the European Commission received an ECURIE alert notification from Belgium concerning a radiological incident in the Institut National de Radio-éléments (IRE) in Fleurus, Belgium. There had been a release of gaseous Iodine-131 from this facility. The incident had been classified Level 3 on the international INES scale (comprising 7 steps) on 26 August.

Belgium could raise between 500 million euros ($740 million) and 1 billion per year by extending the life of its nuclear power stations, business daily De Tijd reported on Wednesday. The money would come primarily from dominant electricity player Electrabel, the Belgian arm of French utility GDF Suez (GSZ.PA). De Tijd said Energy Minister Paul Magnette would soon be submitting to the government a report that concludes Belgium cannot meet its energy needs without nuclear power. The country plans to shut its three oldest reactors in 2015 and the remaining four by 2023.

Belgium will introduce levies on banks, life insurers and nuclear-power producers next year as Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy seeks to start taming a swelling debt burden without hampering the economic recovery. The government will seek 670 million euros ($991 million) from banks and life insurers in 2011 to protect their depositors and policy holders from default, Finance Minister Didier Reynders said. Power producers GDF Suez SA and SPE NV will have to pay as much as 245 million euros annually for keeping the country's three oldest atomic reactors in operation for an additional 10 years, according to Energy Minister Paul Magnette.

Belgium will introduce levies on banks, life insurers and nuclear-power producers next year as Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy seeks to start taming a swelling debt burden without hampering the economic recovery. The government will seek 670 million euros ($991 million) from banks and life insurers in 2011 to protect their depositors and policy holders from default, Finance Minister Didier Reynders said. Power producers GDF Suez SA and SPE NV will have to pay as much as 245 million euros annually for keeping the country's three oldest atomic reactors in operation for an additional 10 years, according to Energy Minister Paul Magnette.

The Belgian government on Monday decided to delay the start of a progressive phasing out of nuclear power by 10 years until 2025, Energy and Climate Minister Paul Magnette said in a statement. "The government has decided to delay by 10 years the first stage of phasing out nuclear power," the statement said. Under a law passed in 2003, Belgium's seven reactors were scheduled to be shut down between 2015 and 2025. Three of the reactors, two at the Doel plant in northern Belgium and one at Tihange in the south, were due to have been closed in 2015 after 40 years of operations but will now remain open until 2025.

The Belgian government on Monday decided to delay the start of a progressive phasing out of nuclear power by 10 years until 2025, Energy and Climate Minister Paul Magnette said in a statement. "The government has decided to delay by 10 years the first stage of phasing out nuclear power," the statement said. Under a law passed in 2003, Belgium's seven reactors were scheduled to be shut down between 2015 and 2025. Three of the reactors, two at the Doel plant in northern Belgium and one at Tihange in the south, were due to have been closed in 2015 after 40 years of operations but will now remain open until 2025.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Aotearoa Section welcomes the entry into force this weekend of Belgian legislation that prohibits government investments in firms that manufacture, use or possess armour and munitions that contain depleted uranium (DU). "This legislation complements the ban on the manufacture, testing, use, sale and stockpiling of uranium weapons which was passed unanimously by the Belgian parliament in 2007 and which also takes effect this weekend", said Christine Greenwood. "Although Belgium is not itself a user of DU munitions or armour, NATO Headquarters and military command are based there, and United States' uranium shipments regularly travel through the port of Antwerp", she continued.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Aotearoa Section welcomes the entry into force this weekend of Belgian legislation that prohibits government investments in firms that manufacture, use or possess armour and munitions that contain depleted uranium (DU). "This legislation complements the ban on the manufacture, testing, use, sale and stockpiling of uranium weapons which was passed unanimously by the Belgian parliament in 2007 and which also takes effect this weekend", said Christine Greenwood. "Although Belgium is not itself a user of DU munitions or armour, NATO Headquarters and military command are based there, and United States' uranium shipments regularly travel through the port of Antwerp", she continued.

Five Member States Submit Candidates to Agency´s Board The IAEA´s 146 Member States were advised this week that five candidates have been nominated for Director General of the Agency. In a letter dated 28 April 2008, IAEA Board Chair Taous Feroukhi said she had received official nominations from the governments of Belgium, Japan, Slovenia, South Africa and Spain. The five nominated candidates are: Mr. Yukiya Amano of Japan; Mr. Luis Echávarri of Spain; Mr. Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa; Mr. Ernest Petrič of Slovenia; and Mr. Jean-Pol Poncelet of Belgium.

"The European Commission has been looking into whether Electrabel abused its dominant position after reaching a nuclear power plant deal with the Belgian government, a spokesman said on Saturday. The preliminary investigation has been underway "for several months," said Amelia Torres, spokeswoman for EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, confirming reports in the Belgian newspapers De Tijd and L'Echo. Electrabel, a unit of French utility group GDF Suez, is the leading electricity provider in Belgium."

Norway may be planning on becoming Europe's battery, but based on what Reuters is saying about a new proposal from Greenpeace it won't just be Norway which supplies Europe with electricity, it will be the North Sea. The head of renewable energy for the European Commission, Hans Van Steen, has called the proposal "ambitious but realistic". 118 Wind Farms + €20 Billion Electric Grid There may be no actual plan in place, but the Greenpeace proposal goes like this: Build 118 offshore wind farms by 2030 in the North Sea off the coasts of Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. Connect the 68 gigawatts of power these windfarms would produce to the mainland through a grid of power cables on the sea bed, the construction of which could cost €20 billion ($29 billion).

Belgian authorities reduced on Saturday a safety zone near a medical laboratory in the southern town of Fleurus where a leak of radioactive iodine occurred recently. On Friday, authorities had recommended precautionary measures to avoid the risk of contamination in a five-kilometre (three-mile) zone near the laboratory, where a leak of radioactive iodine was detected last weekend.

Kris Van Dijck is mayor of Dessel, a small municipality of some 9000 citizens in northern Belgium. He is also a member of the Flemish parliament. We met in Edinburgh on Monday morning, when Mr Van Dijck joined a panel session I was chairing at an international conference for those who communicate the nuclear industry's message around the world. Dessel has been home to various nuclear activities since 1952. Seven companies from the sector are currently active there, from headquarters to plants processing and storing low-level nuclear waste. It all adds up to 1830 jobs, 70% of them filled by local people. The people, observes their mayor, are fully informed about what the industry is doing locally and have the power to call a halt to anything that causes undue concern.

A member of the Belgian Federal Parliament is preparing a bill that would ban the use, production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, it has been learned. Belgium has already gained prominence in the arms control community as the first country to ban cluster and depleted uranium munitions. Belgian Senator Philippe Mahoux may add to that reputation when he presents his nuclear weapons ban to the Senate, which he plans to do in early September, he has revealed to the Mainichi.

THE United Nations Association Edinburgh has called on the UK government to follow Belgium's lead on banning depleted uranium weapons. Belgium's decision has been praised by European military unions who are concerned about the impact the weapons may have on their members. Opposition to uranium weapons in Belgium has been spearheaded by a group of more than 20 NGOs, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Gari Donn, chair of UNA Edinburgh, said: "Today marks the passage into force of Belgium's 2007 decision to ban the use of uranium in conventional weapons and armour after a series of unanimous parliamentary votes.

There are five candidates as of Monday evening for the election of the next IAEA director general to succeed the current IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, whose term is due at the end of this year, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sources. Except the Japanese Ambassador to IAEA Yukiya Amano and the South African diplomat Abdul Samad Minty, the other three candidates include the former energy minister of Belgium Jean-Pol Poncelet, director general of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, Spanish nuclear expert Luis Echevarri, and Slovenian Ambassador to IAEA Ernest Petric.

On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station reactor number 4 exploded at 1:24 a.m. "Tons of radioactive dust was" unleashed "into the air…transported by winds, [and] it contaminated both hemispheres of our planet, settling wherever it rained. The emissions of radioactivity lasted [short-term] for 10 days."(1) On 29 April, "fatal levels of radioactivity were recorded…in Poland, Austria, Romania, Finland, and Sweden."(2) The day after (30 April), it hit Switzerland and Italy. By 2 May, it reached France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Great Britain, and Greece. The next day, Israel, Kuwait, and Turkey were contaminated. Then, over the next few days, "radioactive substances" were recorded in Japan (3 May), China (4 May), India (5 May), and the US and Canada (6 May). The radioactive spew from this explosion was "200 times greater than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima."(3) Not one person was safe from this catastrophic nuclear explosion; and "65-million people were contaminated...more than 400,000 people were forced to evacuate the area [around Chernobyl], losing their homes, possessions and jobs, as well as their economic, social, and family ties."(4) The long-term and hidden costs of radioactive contamination have never been adequately reported by mainstream news. According to the authors (including the distinguished Dr. Rosalie Bertell) of a new book, "Chernobyl: The Hidden Legacy" "[i]t will take millennia to recover…[before an area] as large as Italy, will return to normal radioactive levels in about 100,000 years time."(5)

Decommissioning of experimental nuclear reactors dating from 1959 at Ispra in northern Italy is costing more and taking longer than expected according to a report by the European Commission that is to be presented to the European Parliament Thursday. The EC is reporting to the Parliament's energy committee on the activities of the Joint Research Center on decommissioning of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste under the Euratom treaty. The report covers the activities of the JRC between 2004 and 2008, when it was involved in decommissioning at sites in Belgium (Geel), Germany (Karlsruhe) and the Netherlands (Petten) as well as the Italian site. However, most of its work was focused on the Ispra site because decommissioning activities are currently relatively limited at the other sites as these continue to operate.

Greenpeace and France's Sortir du Nucleaire are seeking to implicate Electricite de France Chairman Pierre Gadonneix in alleged spying by the utility on the anti-nuclear organizations. In a press statement, Greenpeace said it had asked the French government to suspend Gadonneix. It said it had learned through court documents that EDF contractors had been spying on its operations in France, the UK, Spain and Belgium since 2004. Greenpeace said that it asked French environment and energy minister Jean-Louis Borloo to name an "independent commission to evaluate the nuclear industry." Separately, Sortir du Nucleaire said it and its spokesman Stephane Lhomme had simultaneously filed for intervener status in the county court in Nanterre, outside Paris, where an investigative judge is examining evidence in the alleged spying case. SdN said it wants the judge to file charges against Gadonneix and not just against lower-level managers and contractors. EDF said last week that it had suspended two security managers who were implicated in the ongoing investigation.

If New Zealand signed up to a ban on depleted uranium, it could scuttle any sale of the moth-balled Skyhawk jets. Former British Royal Navy commander Robert Green, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1999, urged Parliament's foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee today to encourage the Government to ban using depleted uranium. He said Belgium had taken a precautionary approach and he recommended New Zealand follow its lead until all the evidence was in.

"European NATO allies are to urge President Barack Obama to remove all remaining US nuclear weapons from European soil, as domestic pressure grows to rid its soil of outdated Cold War-era aerial bombs. Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Norway will call "in the coming weeks" for more than 200 American warheads, mostly stocked in Italy and Turkey, to be taken back, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yves Leterme told AFP. A joint proposal by the five NATO members will demand "that nuclear arms on European soil belonging to other NATO member states are removed," Dominique Dehaene said."

"The uranium industry apparently saw this windfall coming and has quietly been dealing with one irony of U.S. nuclear power: the nation imports nearly 90 percent of its nuclear fuel. Ironically, most mining and milling proposals of recent years are from foreign-owned companies and some of the fuel is potentially destined to be shipped to Belgium, Japan, and South Korea. Even the newest enrichment plant to convert uranium to reactor fuel is wholly foreign owned. And, at a time when the government is still cleaning up1980's-era uranium mine and mills at a cost of many billions of dollars, some companies responsible for contaminated sites continue to receive leases on public land, including a Canadian company which tried to skirt clean-up laws under the terms of NAFTA. Complicating the matter is the federal mining law of 1872 - unchanged since it was signed by Ulysses S. Grant - that allows mining claims for as little as $1 an acre on federal land and no royalties to taxpayers despite the fact that some companies routinely leave behind multimillion-dollar cleanup sites."

"Unseen beyond the grazing Holsteins and rolling pastures of eastern Belgium, the 12-foot-long tapered metal cylinders sit in their underground vaults, waiting for the doomsday call that never came. Each packs the power of many Hiroshimas. America's oldest nuclear weapons, unwanted, outdated, a legacy of the 20th century, are now the focus of a political struggle that could shake the NATO alliance in the 21st. The questions hanging over the B-61 bombs, an estimated 200 of them on six air bases across Europe, relate not just to why they're still here, but to how safe and secure they are. For one thing, al-Qaida terrorists have already targeted this Belgian air base 84 kilometers (52 miles) northeast of Brussels. For another, U.S. Air Force inspectors found inadequate security at most of the six sites. And three months ago a "bombspotter" team, anti-nuclear activists, penetrated nearly one kilometer (a half-mile) inside Kleine Brogel, reaching its innermost bunkers."