EPR - European pressurized reactor

EPR is being developed by the most experienced European suppliers of nuclear power plants. The Basic Design is carried out in cooperation with French and German utilities determined to implement EPR into their grids by the turn of the century. EPR is evolutionary developed on basis of the existing plants in France and Germany which serve as reference plants proving outstanding performance records. The licensing authorities of France and Germany accompany the development by reviewing the design results in parallel to the development. The safety approach goes far beyond the present word-wide practice and fulfills the challenging Finnish requirements regarding the mitigation of severe accidents as laid down in the YVL guides. The power generation costs of EPR will be competitive with other primary energy sources. The price tag for an EPR could be today 15 billion marks. (orig.)