At the time of the events, Belgium was already equipped with several nuclear power stations.
In Belgium as in the other countries, exploitation of nuclear energy was facing an acute opposition, which reinforced after the Chernobyl catastrophe.
One of the first reactions from the Belgian press and from the Belgium authorities was to wonder about the safety of the Belgian nuclear power stations as well as to compare them to the Soviet power stations.
Fortunately, it quickly appeared that our power stations had nothing to do with the Soviet ones.
But the question was asked, as in the article of “Pourquoi pas” which printed in headlines on its first page (edition of the 7th may) “If tomorrow Tihange…”. From this time on, the specter of the catastrophe was hanging over our cooling towers.