Explosion Hits Belgian Nuclear Power Station

E-Paper | March 16, 2026

DOEL: An explosion hit the Doel nuclear power station in northern Belgium on Sunday, Els De Clercq, a representative of Electrabel energy corporation that operates the plant was quoted by Sputnik radio and website

Clercq told reporters that none of Deol's personnel were injured and added that there was no fuel in the nuclear reactor and the fire department was able to extinguish the flame.

He claimed, the exact damage from the incident is still unknown.

Doel Nuclear Power Station is located five kilometres south of the Dutch border with Belgium.

Nine million people live within a 75-kilometre radius of the power plant, making it the most densely populated area to house a nuclear reactor in all of Europe, according to a 2011 analysis by science journal Nature and Columbia University in New York.

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Shahid

Nov 02, 2015 07:15pm

And comparatively 20 million live around our installations in Karachi.

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Agha Ata

Nov 02, 2015 07:48pm

This time "...there was no fuel in the nuclear reactor." Good. But what about the next time, and the next, and the next, and elsewhere in any other country? Murphey's laws say .." if anything can go wrong, it will."

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Freeman

Nov 02, 2015 08:26pm

Don't why people build nuclear power plants close to population. Is there some technical reason or political? First level of safety that comes to layman's mind is to build it sufficiently far from dense population to limit the damage in case of catastrophe. Can somebody shed light on it?

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Nov 02, 2015 08:55pm

"The blast happened around 11pm local time on Saturday. The fire started in Reactor 1 of the plant, but was soon extinguished by personnel. The explosion didn’t cause any threat to nature, Els De Clercq, spokeswoman from Belgian energy corporation Electrabel that runs the plant, told Het Laatste Nieuws. There was no fuel present at the time of the incident as the reactor had been shut due to its expired operational license."

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Must read this..

Nov 02, 2015 09:15pm

Chernobyle accident in Russua 1986,Fukushima Japan 2011,are most prominent examples for those who believe in nuclear power reactors,thanks God Belgian incident got controlled.There are alternate ways to generate power but a little expensive,so why take risks,the safety should be more sacred than other aspects.

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Nasir

Nov 02, 2015 10:04pm

I am happy without electricity instead of electricity from these plants.

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salman Dasti

Nov 02, 2015 10:04pm

Why we are making a Nuclear Reactor in Karachi where more than 10 million people live near by. Kindly stop this as soon a possible.

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khanmann

Nov 03, 2015 12:17am

a sincere advice to Mr Nawaz and all those who will follow, forget above the civil nuclear things, no matter how developed country you are, nuclear plants are living time bombs. why go for short cuts if we have other source to produce energy.mark my words we are not in position to coup up with any disaster of such sort.have some mercy.build dams or use the limitless wind power from gawadar cost till hyderabad, but stay away from nuclear plants.

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rakul

Nov 03, 2015 03:58am

what caused the explosion?

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