Belgian Reactor Doel 4 Ready to Restart by Year End

Belgium's Doel 4 nuclear reactor, which had to close earlier this year due to sabotage, will restart by the end of the year, utility group Electrabel, part of France's GDF Suez, said.

The return of the 1,039 megawatt (MW) reactor, located near the port of Antwerp in the north of Belgium, is good news for the country's electricity supply.

Two other reactors of similar size have been offline since early this year because of cracks in their reactor tanks. Doel 4's stoppage since August had threatened to cause blackouts over the peak winter months.

"Electrabel's engineers have begun the final phase of a process to allow for a reopening expected before the end of the year," the group said in a statement.

On Tuesday, a 1,015 MW reactor at Tihange in the south of Belgium restarted after a fire at a transformer forced it to shut down on Sunday.

Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek