French reactor builder says safety concerns will be met (Roundup)

Nov 3, 2009, 13:28 GMT

Paris - French nuclear technology supplier Areva said Tuesday that concerns raised by nuclear safety authorities in France, Britain and Finland over the reliability of its new European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) will be met.

'Neither the planning nor the safety of the EPR reactor is being called into question following the points raised by the different nuclear safety authorities,' an Areva spokesman said.

'This constant dialogue between the operators, constructors and nuclear safety authorities is an integral part of the certification and construction process for new reactors.'

The three national nuclear safety authorities wrote letters Monday to Areva and French utility EDF questioning the safety of the design of the third-generation nuclear reactor.

The problems, which were first detected in June by the British Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), concern the control and instrumentation (C&I) of the Areva-built EPR. The C&I runs the computers and various systems that maintain the reactor's performance, such as temperature and power output.

The concerns raised are related to the system that regulates its daily operations and the system that shuts it down in case of an incident, which are viewed as not being sufficiently independent of each other.

In its current state the software cannot guarantee the necessary safety requirements, the report noted.

The French-designed EPR is the world's most powerful nuclear reactor, capable of generating enough electricity to supply a city of nearly 2 million people.

Two EPRs are currently being built, in Olkiluoto, Finland, and Flamanville, France.

The Olkiluoto EPR was to have gone online in 2009, but has been delayed for at least three years. In addition, cost estimates have ballooned from the initial 3.7 billion euros (5.42 billion dollars) to 5.3 billion euros.

Potentially more problematic, the French nucear safety authority ASN demanded that EDF draw up an alternative plan for the EPR it will be running in the western French city of Flamanville beginning in 2012.

Marcial Jorel, director of nuclear reactor safety at the Institute of Nuclear Safety and Radioprotection, told the daily Les Echos, 'Either EDF takes our recommendations into account, or it must develop a new system, which will take years.'

Areva, which is building the Olkiluoto reactor, must now provide changes to its software and additional information by June of next year.

If the problems are not satisfactorily resolved, it could affect the largely state-owned EDF's plans to construct four reactors in Britain in partnership with Areva.

In 2008, EDF purchased British Energy for 12.5 billion pounds (20.37 billion dollars) to acquire access to the sites.

The environmental group Greenpeace said the safety concerns expressed by the three authorities cast doubt over the entire industry.

'The nuclear industry is clearly showing its inability to manage the dangerous substances it manipulates and the waste it generates,' Yannick Rousselet of Greenpeace France said Tuesday, and demanded that construction on the Flamanville EPR be halted.

That demand was supported by Green Party Senator Dominique Voynet, a former environment minister.

In addition, the anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire accused the ASN of either being incompetent or closing its eyes to the EPR's problems.

'It was the British safety authority that detected the problem in June 2009 ... while the French safety authority (ASN) had already long authorized construction of the EPR: the ASN either saw nothing or said nothing,' the group said in a statement.