Joint safety evaluation

The establishment of the EPR project by Electricite de France, a consortium of German electricity companies and NPI, a subsidiary of the vendors Framatome and Siemens, has led, over the last five years, to a substantial amount of joint work by the French and German safety organisations on the safety of the future pressurized water reactors, at the request of the safety authorities of the two countries. The objective set is somewhat limited: it concerns pressurized water reactors which might be built in series early in the next century. This clearly restricts the range of possible innovations in view of the time required to qualify 'revolutionary' industrial equipment. But this does not exclude that, in a certain number of years, considering changes in knowledge and thinking, such 'revolutionary' equipment could appear desirable, even necessary, from a safety point of view. (orig.)