{"id":25978,"date":"2025-04-16T23:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T23:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/25978\/"},"modified":"2025-04-16T23:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T23:18:08","slug":"postwar-russian-energy-return-illusory-belgium-says-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/25978\/","title":{"rendered":"Postwar Russian energy return \u2018illusory,\u2019 Belgium says \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>No nuclear \u2018has been\u2019<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Bihet insists he has a partial solution for the EU\u2019s continued Russian energy reliance: more atomic power.<\/p>\n<p>Long a die-hard nuclear proponent \u2014 Belgian lawmakers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hln.be\/binnenland\/energieminister-mathieu-atomic-boy-bihet-wil-af-van-vervaldatum-voor-kerncentrales-we-gaan-dat-niet-meer-vooraf-bepalen~a2772ac4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nicknamed<\/a> him \u201cAtomic Boy\u201d \u2014 the Walloon Reformist Movement politician said he wants to overhaul his country\u2019s approach to the low-emissions technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFive years ago, it was a curse word,\u201d Bihet said. \u201cI was a has-been.\u201d Now, he added, \u201cthe tide has turned on nuclear power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Belgium, which has two active nuclear plants, has long treated atomic power ambivalently, <a href=\"https:\/\/etaamb.openjustice.be\/fr\/loi-du-31-janvier-2003_n2003011096.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">banning<\/a> new reactor construction in 2003. Bihet wants to scrap that law, further extend the lifespan of the two existing reactors, and potentially double the country\u2019s installed capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The country also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.belganewsagency.eu\/belgium-joins-european-alliance-for-nuclear-energy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joined<\/a> France\u2019s pronuclear alliance of EU members, which backs a 50 percent boost in installed atomic power by 2050. The group has been surfing on the energy security concerns pervading Europe following Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Bihet, nuclear power is both an economic issue \u2014 and a personal one. \u201cI come from the [eastern] Li\u00e8ge region. We can see how the deindustrialization of the last 10 years has cost our province dearly \u2014 there\u2019s lots of space but little employment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No nuclear \u2018has been\u2019 At the same time, Bihet insists he has a partial solution for the EU\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15856,1789,6641,5168,2825,3374,35,3975,1214,7159,36,39,5435,1824,475,2199,660,12270,5443,6716,12,1303,2661,15857,7697,48,332,811,413,104,53,657,49,771,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-25978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bart-de-wever","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-competitiveness","11":"tag-construction","12":"tag-debt","13":"tag-employment","14":"tag-energy","15":"tag-energy-security","16":"tag-exports","17":"tag-fossil-fuels","18":"tag-france","19":"tag-fuels","20":"tag-gas","21":"tag-germany","22":"tag-imports","23":"tag-italy","24":"tag-kremlin","25":"tag-liquefied-natural-gas","26":"tag-lng","27":"tag-marc-ferracci","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-nuclear-power","30":"tag-oil","31":"tag-pipelines","32":"tag-ports","33":"tag-rights","34":"tag-russia","35":"tag-security","36":"tag-space","37":"tag-spain","38":"tag-technology","39":"tag-ukraine","40":"tag-united-states","41":"tag-war","42":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114350201645090809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}