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Safety problems add to costs, overruns, in AREVA’s new nuclear plants

Areva, the state-controlled French nuclear engineering company, is already battling construction delays and cost overruns at both Flamanville and Olkiluoto, in Finland, where it is building the first of its EPR plants.

Safety Fears Raised at French Reactor, NYTimes.com, By PATRICIA BRETT July 26, 2010, PARIS — Anti-nuclear activists are seeking to halt construction of France’s latest-generation nuclear power plant at Flamanville, on the Normandy coast, arguing that changes introduced to solve problems with the reactor’s fuel pellet cladding have invalidated the plant’s original building permit.

Didier Anger, head of the anti-nuclear action committee Crilan, and a former member of the European Parliament, said the bid to block, or at least delay, construction of the EPR reactor had been made in a letter this month from the committee to the French nuclear safety authority, the A.S.N.

Changes to the initially proposed cladding design would affect the operating economics of the reactor and would present “a serious safety problem,” Mr. Anger said. The safety regulator had not yet responded, he added by telephone last week.

Areva, the state-controlled French nuclear engineering company, is already battling construction delays and cost overruns at both Flamanville and Olkiluoto, in Finland, where it is building the first of its EPR plants. EPR originally stood for European Pressurized Reactor, a name that Areva subsequently changed to Evolutionary Power Reactor when it sought U.S. certification………………

Spanning 10 years from 1999 to 2009, the documents, published by the coalition, Sortir du Nicleaire, referred to a major redesign of the core because original plans did not meet safety criteria, and indicated that despite the revamping, some issues remained unresolved. They also documented efforts by EDF to conceal unfavorable data from the A.S.N. while trying to persuade the regulator to relax safety requirements.

The documents referred specifically to Flamanville, but all EPR plants have the same basic design, according to national nuclear regulators in France, Finland and Britain, which is also considering EPR construction proposals.

Special Report – Energy – Safety Fears Raised at French Reactor – NYTimes.com

July 27, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear technology, radiation, radioactive, reactor, uranium