The site is located on the bank of the Meuse river, near the village of Tihange in the Walloon province of Liège.

In order to extend the lifetime of Tihange 3, the operator will receive subsidies through a Contract of Difference arrangement.

[2] [3] The power station was built by a public utility Intercom which merged into Engie Electrabel in 1990 together with EBES and Unerg.

The ultrasonic inspection revealed that there were thousands of semi laminar flaws in the reactor vessel's steel rings forged by Rotterdam Drydocks.

After a re-qualification of the ultrasonic equipment and additional tests on a more similar German made piece of steel the reactor was restarted in November 2015.

This so-called RD (révision décennale) is a legal obligation imposed by the Belgian state and the exploitation license of the plant.

Various weather conditions have been analysed including rain, seiches, tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, wind, tornados, lightning, snow, hail, extreme temperatures, cyclones, sandstorms and waterspouts.

This earthquake resulted in horizontal ground accelerations of up to 0.1g [15]: 55  and formed the original design base for Tihange 1.

: 50  After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster probabilistic safety studies performed by the Royal Observatory of Belgium predicted earthquakes with peak ground acceleration of up to 0.21g every 10,000 years.

[15]: 29 Nuclear plants are designed with multiple physical barriers to keep fission productions from escaping into the environment.

The non-condensable gases that cause pressure within containment to rise are released through a stack (or chimney) via a filtration system that removes large quantities of fission products from the effluent.

[17][18][19][20][21][22] As part of the stress tests following the Fukushima incident, this issue had already been identified to be included in the stress-test action plan (BEST).

[15]: 147  In a boiling water reactor, like those in Fukushima, the heat removal capacity of the pumps is limited as the steam that drives the turbines is radioactive and thus has to be stored.

Category A waste with half lives of less than 30 years is transported to Belgoprocess in Dessel for surface disposal.

[26] High level waste was originally recycled to MOX fuel, and re-used in the Tihange 2 reactor.

[30] Greens member of the European Parliament Rebecca Harms has called for the decommissioning of Belgium's oldest nuclear reactor, Tihange 1, as it no longer meets international safety standards.

The academic came to the conclusion that the continued operation of Tihange 1 due to “outdated reactor design, inadequate safety management and the accumulation of frequent unplanned events represents a potential danger for the site and its surroundings.” It was particularly critical “that the results of international tests and current safety standards are not adequately taken into account.” [31] On 15 March 2016, the federal government of Belgium decided 140 soldiers would guard the nuclear sites.

[32] In late 2015 it was already decided a specially trained department of the federal police would guard the nuclear sites.

[34] In February 2017 the Frenchman Jean-Philippe Bainier was installed as the new CEO of Tihange in order to restore confidence in the safety culture at the plant.

[35] In September 2018 during a planned inspection by the exploitant Engie Electrabel decaying concrete was found in the bunker-buildings of Doel 3 and Tihange 3, where the emergency-systems are located.

[37] On 24 September 2018, Minister Marie-Christine Marghem of Energy, mentioned during a press-conference that she would contact the Netherlands, France and Germany to help Belgium with extra capacity for electricity.