The prosecutor's office in Liège opened an investigation following a fake news announcing an explosion at the Tihange NPP. "Rascals" had hijacked the home page of RTL Info, the main news site in the country.
"Alert: atomic explosion at Tihange" . "The information" published on the homepage of RTL Info, the main news site in Belgium, caused a panic in the night from Friday to Saturday. It seemed all the more plausible that "two of the three reactors of the Tihange plant, operated by Electrabel, a subsidiary of Engie, are currently at a standstill due to technical problems " and that "anomalies in the concrete tanks are currently under investigation, " says Le Monde.
The police and rescue services were quickly overwhelmed by phone calls, despite a denial issued shortly after midnight by RTL Info, at the request of the authorities.
Because of explosion, there never was. RTL Info never published this information. "Some malicious people have reproduced the appearance of the website RTLinfo.be," says the site, which has complained about "usurpation of his image . " The investigation was entrusted to the Federal Computer Crime Unit (FCCU), a unit of the Central Directorate for Combating Serious and Organized Crime.
Belgium has announced its intention to exit nuclear power by 2025; many observers doubt it. In December 2015, a fire caused the shutdown of reactor number 1 of the Tihange plant. Which obviously gave ideas to little jokers.