Belgian media claimed Monday morning the Belgian Tihange nuclear power plant has evacuated non-essential personnel in response to the terrorist attacks across Brussels.
“The police have evacuated the Tihange nuclear station,” said VTM, claiming it learned the news from police sources.
Tihange is one of two nuclear power plants in Belgium and approximately one hour’s drive from Brussels. Originally, it was believed the entire nuclear facility was being evacuated, but the news was later corrected and only non-essential staff are being removed. VTM has reported there is no evidence the plant is currently under threat.
The precautionary measure comes after Belgian authorities found what appeared to be video surveillance footage of a top Belgian nuclear official in the apartment of Mohamed Bakkali, who was arrested for alleged involvement in the Paris attacks in November of last year.
Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned The Daily Caller News Foundation in February a potential attack on a Belgian nuclear facility would be catastrophic, though difficult to pull off.
“A terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant could conceivably result in an event as catastrophic as a severe accident like Chernobyl or Fukushima,” Lyman told TheDCNF in an emailed statement. “It’s not clear to me what information they could glean from the surveillance of the home of a nuclear official alone, unless they were planning to kidnap him and extract information,” said Lyman.
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