As the U.K. begins to fast-track nuclear power permitting, its safety regulator and those of Finland and France have sent Europe’s main nuclear plant supplier back to the drawing board. Already grappling with construction delays at its first EPR pressurized water reactor project—Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) plant—Areva Np., Paris, must now also rethink key safety systems. In an unusual joint move, nuclear safety regulators in the U.K., Finland and France recently revealed safety concerns about the EPR’s control and instrumentation (C&I) systems.
“The EPR design, as originally proposed...doesn’t comply with the independence principle, as there is a very high degree of complex interconnectivity between the control and safety systems,” report officials at the U.K. Health & Safety Executive.