Alternatives #5: The renaissance of solar homes
Alternatives #4: Hydrocarbons, cocktails of the future
Alternatives #3: Geothermal modesty
Alternatives #2: Tomorrow's reactors
Alternatives #1: Energies, what scenario for 2050?
Quiz: Test what you know about sustainable development
Quiz: Checking on the state of the Earth
Game: Nuclear energy key words
Game: Energy Memory Game
Game: Evaluate your ecological footprint
Safety first and foremost
A key decision, in line with the recommendations of the French and German safety authorities, was to base the EPR™ design on an evolutionary approach using experience feedback from more than 100 reactors previously built or under construction by AREVA.
With the EPR™ reactor, the high level of safety of pressurized water reactors (PWR) has been increased even further.
Four independent emergency buildings
Four safeguard buildings
The major safety systems consist of four sub-systems or trains, each capable of performing 100% of the safety function on its own.
Each safety system is physically separated from the others and two of them are airplane crashes resistant.
They are located in separate parts of the plant and have their own protection features. This overcomes the risk of simultaneous failure of all the safety systems due to internal or external events, such as fire or airplane crash.
A barrier to radioactivity
Leaktight containement
The EPR™ is designed in such a way that, should an accident occur, the extremely robust leaktight containment around the reactor includes not only a metal liner which would prevent any external radioactive release but also an annular area inside the dual wall containment where any residual radioactive elements would be filtered.
The containment can withstand high pressure and temperature, even during severe accidents leading to core meltdown and reactor vessel failure.
Severe accident mitigation
Corium retention area
In the highly unlikely event of core meltdown, molten core (or corium) escaping from the reactor vessel would be collected and contained in a specially-design corium area at the bottom of the reactor containment building. Then, it would be cooled with water coming from an in-containment storage tank.
Resistance to external hazards
Airplane crashes (military jet or large commercial aircraft)
The containment building which houses the most sensitive buildings is particularly robust:
- the upper part comprises two walls:
- an inner pre-stressed concrete housing with a steel liner,
- an outer reinforced concrete shell. - the outer shell protects the inner walls and structures from direct impact and resulting vibrations.
This protects the reactor building, the used fuel building, two of the four safeguards buildings and the main control room.
The two other safeguards buildings and the diesel buildings are geographically separated, so they cannot both be impacted at the same time.
