For the near future, the trends are set in a general way by the investment plan of the Belgian electricity producers, with a time horizon up to 2005. This will probably be met by 3 additional STAG-plants of 350 MWe each and 3 additional ultra supercritical coal fired plants of 400 MWe each. The prospects in the long term, i.e. beyond 2005, will be driven by economical, ecological, technological as well as political considerations and are as yet still speculative. For gas, a 1995 technology has been studied. A desired independence as high as possible makes that diversification in fuel supply is a key issue in the Belgian fuel management.
Stock management is another strategic necessity.
Strategic fuel management will a fortiori be important in the future. Therefore, a lot of attention has been paid to import of fuels from different countries. As nuclear is the most important fuel for electricity generation, with some specific issues compared to earlier cases, this cycle was studied. Specific attention has been paid to assess both the open and the closed nuclear fuel cycle. In the closed cycle the spent fuel is reprocessed and the uranium and plutonium re-used in the cycle before final disposal.