As of today, Friday, nuclear facilities in Belgium may no longer be photographed or filmed without permission from the Ministry of the Interior and the nuclear supervisory authority. This is to ensure that images of nuclear and sensitive facilities cannot be indiscriminately disseminated and used, the Nuclear Control Agency FANC said.
Since March 23, 2020, Belgium has banned nuclear installations from being photographed from satellites or from the air, and the photos or films may not be published if details can be seen on them. FANC explains that Belgium was responding to a request from the French National Assembly and the Swiss nuclear regulator.
As of today, January 28, the law applies to all types of imaging, not just aerial or satellite images, but also tourist photos, for example. FANC inspectors can also enforce the ban. The operators of the nuclear facility themselves are exempt from this, but conditions can be imposed on them for the use of the recordings. Violators of the ban can be sentenced to imprisonment from eight days to a year and a fine.
“Other images are also problematic”
“After two years, we realized that other image material could also be problematic for the security of our facilities. For example, access can be seen on a tourist photo. That’s why an extension of this law was the order of the day,” said a FANC spokeswoman loudly flanderinfo.be
If you want to photograph a Belgian nuclear power plant, you can apply to the Belgian Ministry of the Interior. The FANC provides an application for this on its website. The extended ban is to be specified in more detail in the coming months. In Germany it is forbidden to photograph security-relevant installations from the air, for example military premises or nuclear power plants.
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