Brussels: A nuclear reactor at Tihange power station in Belgium has been turned off because of a fire in the plant, media reports said Saturday.
Reactor unit 1 was automatically switched off during the fire on Friday evening, which occurred in a non-nuclear section of the plant. The incident did not impact workers, the public or the environment, operator Electrabel said, according to Belga news agency.
Tihange is located about 70 kilometers west of the German border town of Aachen.
Earlier in the week, the plant's reactor unit 2 was restarted after a nearly two-year shutdown despite the objections of neighboring German officials, who called the decision 'irresponsible'.
Electrabel said it put the reactor back online 'in complete safety'. The facility has long been criticized as a potential safety hazard, with Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia Environment Minister Johannes Remmel recently calling it a 'crumbling reactor' and accusing Belgian authorities of 'playing Russian roulette'.
QNA
