Belgium now spends much time rankling over how to get rid of its nuclear plants that give the country over half of it’s electricity. The plants are aging and it is not realistic to build new ones. Yet the emission free generation is vital to meeting pollution goals. However going back to 1961 allows us to go back to a more optimistic time when the first electricity began to flow. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The BR3 nuclear reactor was to the the first that would provide electricity to the people of Belgium. The original idea was to build it in Brussels and have it open to the public as part of the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair. That it was even seriously considered is pretty bizarre. Eventually it opened a few years later located in the existing nuclear research center at Mol. The delayed opening was still important enough to warrant an issue of stamps that attacked the issue of how to show the plant in a good light with mediocre design and poor printing.
Todays stamp is issue A159, a three Franc stamp issued by Belgium on November 8th 1961. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the opening of the BR3 reactor at Mol. The plant didn’t actually start generating electricity until the next year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.
The Belgian mining operation in the Katanga region of Belgian Congo discovered uranium ore in 1911. An atomic research unit was set up back in Belgium that worked closely with Marie Curie. During World War II and the Manhattan project a deal was struck that gave the USA access to Katanga uranium and Belgium access to American nuclear technology. The BR3 reactor followed the earlier BR1 and BR2 research only reactors at Mol. All were American designs.
The BR3 produced electricity until 1987. The early 1980s had seen 7 new nuclear reactors and there was no need to try to extend beyond it’s intended 25 year life span. It was the first plant of its type to be decommissioned. The site still hosts the nuclear research reactors. Studies from the early 2000s long after BR3 indicate that children with 15 kilometers of the Mol complex have 3 times the risk of developing leukemia and higher rates of thyroid cancer.
The nuclear research in Belgium had an unfortunate consequence in their former colony. In 1959 the Belgians constructed a nuclear research reactor nearby Kinshasa in a town now called Mama Mobutu. It opened in 1959 and was the first reactor in Africa. After independence the dictators of the country thought the site gave them much prestige. President Mobutu even managed to buy and get operating a second reactor that supplied electricity. This troubled Belgium and they assisted with maintenance and annual inspections. As the country gradually fell apart so did the plant’s output until it stopped completely in 2004. The more recent governments have ambitions to get the plant working again but are being told it is not possible to source parts for the now quite old design. Pieces like fuel rods traced from the plant regularly show up on the black market. Climate change and soil erosion are now threatening the entire site with collapse. There are worries that when it does the old nuclear fuel might leak into the water supply of Kinshasa. I know, reason 37 for not drinking the water in Kinshasa.
Well my drink is empty and I wonder if there is a place to get another on in the Atomium. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.