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Nor does using electricity in the home, in industry or for transportation emit greenhouse gases.

It is interesting to note that France's energy choices have given it one of Europe's lowest CO2 emission rates per capita. Nuclear power prevents an estimated 1.8 billion tons of CO2 emissions worldwide every year, including some 800 million tons in Europe, or the equivalent of emissions from 200 million automobiles.

The EPR is the result of a joint venture between Framatome* and Siemens KWU whose nuclear activities have since been merged to form Framatome ANP*.

It has the following advantages over its predecessors:
- its performance levels have been greatly improved, resulting in increased competitiveness,
- it includes a considerable number of advanced technological features that make it extremely safe,
- operation and maintenance are simplified,
- it provides solutions to sustainable development issues, notably by generating less waste and effluents.

* Now AREVA NP

To learn more:
 Download the publication: The EPR, a strategic choice
 Read the press kit: The EPR, the advanced nuclear reactor (October 2004) 
 View the 3D video clip about EPR
 Week picture: Olkiluoto, Finland's fifth reactor and AREVA's first EPR

During this reaction, called fission, two or three neutrons and radiation are released. Nuclear reactors use fission energy. When neutrons hit nature's only fissile atom, uranium 235 (U235), its nuclei split, producing heat that is converted into electricity.

The uranium is contained in highly elaborate fuel assemblies designed to control the nuclear fission reaction and for good thermal contact with the primary water.

The fuel is advanced technology designed to comply with stringent reactor safety requirements. Special precautions must be taken during its fabrication due to the presence of fissile materials.

A reactor may contain from 150 to 200 fuel assemblies, depending on its rated capacity. Every 12 or 18 months, one third or one fourth of the "spent" fuel assemblies in the reactor core are replaced with "fresh" assemblies.

The total residence time of an assembly in the reactor vessel is three or four years.

There are three types of power plants:  fossil fuel plants, hydroelectric plants and nuclear plants. All three are based on the same concept:  turning a turbine connected to an alternator that generates electricity. What differentiates them is how the turbine is driven.

In hydroelectric plants, water from a dam activates the turbine. In conventional fossil fuel plants coal, natural gas or oil is burned to convert the water into steam to drive the turbine. Nuclear plants replace those fossil fuels with uranium nuclei.

In its natural state, uranium is a mixture of two atoms or "isotopes":  99.3% is uranium 238 (U238) and 0.7% is uranium 235 (U235). Only U235 is fissile, its nucleus capable of splitting into several smaller nuclei.

When the nucleus of a U235 atom is bombarded by a neutron, it splits into two new smaller nuclei, or fission products. The fission process releases energy in the form of heat along with three new neutrons. These "new" neutrons will, in turn, split other U235 atoms, creating more neutrons that split more U235 atoms, and on and on in a chain reaction.

It is this chain reaction that makes nuclear power plants operate. The large amount of heat it releases in the reactors is used to heat water, converting it to steam just like a conventional boiler, which activates a turbine that drives an alternator that generates electricity.

The control rods contain neutron-absorbing boron or cadmium to slow down or stop the chain reaction.

The reactor's power can be varied by inserting the control rods at varying depths into the uranium fuel assemblies.

In the event of off-normal operating conditions, the controls rods are completely inserted into the reactor core, stopping the chain reaction in two seconds.