Nuclear energy policy in Belgium after Fukushima

Pierre L. Kunsch and Jean Friesewinkel

Energy Policy, 2014, vol. 66, issue C, 462-474

Abstract: The Belgian nuclear phase-out law imposes closing down in the 2015–2025 period seven nuclear power plants (NPPs) producing more than 50% of the domestic electricity. This creates an urgent problem in the country because of the absence of well-defined capacity-replacement plans. Though a safety-of-supply provision in the law allows for a delayed phase-out, hopes for a technically acceptable schedule have reduced after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. In this article policy investigations are made with system dynamics. A significant finding from such modelling is that, in contrast to common expectations, a too early nuclear phase-out will not serve the deployment of renewable energy sources and rational use of energy. It is indeed found to primarily benefit to fossil fuel, creating unwanted drawbacks regarding safety of supply, dependency on foreign suppliers, price volatility, and increased use of non-renewable and CO2-emitting fossil fuels.

Keywords: Nuclear energy; renewable energy sources; system dynamics modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513011427
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:66:y:2014:i:c:p:462-474

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.11.035

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().