Belgium funds eight nuclear research projects in energy push

Belgium has approved eight nuclear research projects, selecting the work from 41 proposals submitted in 2025 by universities, research centres and companies. The package was put forward by Energy Minister Mathieu Bihet and approved by the federal government.

The eight projects will receive 10.79 million euros from the Energy Transition Fund. They were chosen for scientific quality, relevance to Belgium’s energy goals and their expected impact on innovation, security of supply and decarbonisation. It includes work on small modular reactors, nuclear fusion, advanced materials, robotics, research infrastructure and the integration of nuclear energy into industry.

One project will support upgrade work on the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Germany, a machine built around twisted magnetic confinement rather than the more familiar tokamak geometry. Another will develop an advanced robotic repair platform for the nuclear and energy sectors, for maintenance done remotely, under radiation, and without long outages. A third will examine nuclear energy’s role in Belgium’s decarbonisation pathway and the potential of advanced reactors, including SMRs.

The spending comes amid Belgium’s policy reversal on nuclear power. Parliament repealed the 2003 phase-out law in May 2025, wiping out the closure deadline and the ban on new nuclear plants. Belgium had already extended Doel 4 and Tihange 3 by 10 years in March 2022, citing security of supply during the energy crisis and Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the European Commission later cleared the state-aid plan for that lifetime extension. The government now intends to keep both reactors running to 2035, while also leaving the door open to new build.

Belgium’s then-five remaining reactors generated 32,928 GWh in 2024, or 42.2% of the country’s electricity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Belgium’s seven-reactor fleet has already shrunk to two operating units, Doel 4 and Tihange 3, after a wave of shutdowns between 2022 and 2025. The Energy Transition Fund has already backed nearly 200 million euros across 140 energy research projects over the past decade.