Brussels, Rabi'I 16, 1437, December 27, 2015, SPA -- All three reactors at Belgium's controversial Tihange nuclear power plant are back on line, a spokesman for the operator said Saturday, according to dpa. Reactor unit 1, which automatically shut down on December 18 because of a fire in an electrical panel, was restarted at 4:20 pm (1520 GMT) and was producing electricity again, the Electrabel spokesman told dpa. The fire did not impact workers, the public or the environment, Electrabel said. Tihange is located about 70 kilometres west of the German border town of Aachen. Its reactor units 1 and 2 have caused controversy in Germany, which is moving toward clean and sustainable energy sources and has passed legislation that requires the closure of all commercial nuclear reactors by 2022. Tihange's unit 1 is 40 years old, while unit 2 recently had to be shut down because of hairline cracks in the reactor vessel. Before the fire in unit 1, the plant's reactor unit 2 was restarted after a nearly two-year shutdown despite the objections of German officials. Electrabel said it put the reactor back online "in complete safety." The facility has long been criticized as a potential safety hazard, with Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia Environment Minister Johannes Remmel recently calling it a "crumbling reactor" and accusing Belgian authorities of "playing Russian roulette." Another Belgian nuclear reactor that has had problems recently is Doel 3. It was taken offline Friday four days after being restarted. The reactor, which is identical to Tihange unit 2, was taken off line because of a leak from a hot water pipe. Electrabel stressed that neither the leak in to Doel reactor nor of the fire in Tihange reactor caused a danger to the reactors or the environment. Both incidents occurred in non-nuclear parts of the plants. --SPA 01:02 LOCAL TIME 22:02 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w