“The stoppage at such a station has no impact on international market prices,” Vande Lanotte said. “So there can be no impact on Belgian prices.” Energy prices have been frozen by law until 1 January 2013, he pointed out.

Vande Lanotte also split with Wathelet over the question of importing electricity to meet demand. Last week Wathelet reacted to a warning of possible power cuts this winter from the federal agency for nuclear control (FANC). The two reactors account for about 20% of the country’s needs. Buying electricity in at peak moments was, he said, unreliable and unsafe, and would lead to an increased dependence on external suppliers.

Vande Lanotte said he saw no problem in importing electricity if need be. “Foreign electricity just happens to be cheaper,” he said. Vande Lanotte did agree with his colleague, however, on the question of warnings from FANC. The information they were putting out, he said, was “incoherent. Rather than sowing panic in the media, he [director-general Willy De Roovere] would do better to give the government and the public concrete and correct information on the risks and what might be done about them.”