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France’s EPR nuclear reactors are not safe

Interview with Giuseppe Onufrio, Director of Greenpeace Italia. 22 Nov 09 Giuseppe Onufrio: “In Finland and in France they are busy building these new power stations known as Epr, which are a French design. In this regard, a few months ago we discovered that these power stations have never been approved due to the fact that their emergency systems do not meet the minimum nuclear safety requirements, which are? The emergency system may not be physically located in the same area as the normal operating systems because, in the event of an accident occurring, if one of the systems should fail, then the backup system would also fail.
The first indication came in a letter dated December last year: the Finnish safety authority wrote to the French manufacturer, Areva, complaining about the fact that the people attending the meetings were incompetent with regard to nuclear safety and stating that: “notwithstanding the fact that we ordered you to re-design the emergency system, this has never been done”.
In April, this letter was leaked and Greenpeace lodged a complaint in this regard. In June 2009, the British Nuclear Safety Agency drafted a document, which, in addition to stating that this type of power station, both the French and the American Ap 1000 design manufactured by Westinghouse, would not survive a direct hit in the event of an aircraft crash, also reiterated the Finnish claims, namely that the emergency system does not meet the minimum nuclear safety requirements regarding the independence of the two systems.
On the 15th October, the French Nuclear Safety Agency wrote to the manufacturer, saying the same thing. On the 22nd October, no less than three Nuclear Safety Agencies issued a joint communiqué stating that it would be impossible to approve the current plans for the Epr reactor.
Yet the power station is already under construction and our politicians are trying to fool you into believing that we will have a plant that is the epitome of safety while, in reality, both in the country in which the power plant is being built, and in England, which is itself interested in replacing its own ageing power plants with these new ones, they are saying that “The project cannot be approved and it is going to take at least two or three years to get back on track”. Meanwhile, back in Finland, the Finnish Safety Authority has discovered no less than 2,100 non-compliances at the Olkiluoto construction site, where one of the two reactors in question is currently under construction. http://www.beppegrillo.it/en/2009/11/nuclear_power_will_never_be_ap_1.html

November 23, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radioactive