European Pressurized reactors

European pressurized reactor

French company Areva on December 6 signed Euro 7 billion deal with  nuclear power corporation of India. (NPCIL) for construction of two nuclear reactors - the first in a series of six and supply of 25 years enriched uranium. Areva partnership  with NPCIL plan to build six nuclear EPR ( European pressurized reactor  ) of 165o M.W. each, with first one coming up at Jaithapur in Maharashtra.  Said  Areva CEO  Anne Lauvergeon. She said the financial details of  the deal were yet to be fully worked out.

The European pressurized reactor water  ( reactor PWR design ). It has been designed and developed  mainly by De  Frame tome  (now Areva NP) Electricite   De France and Siemens AG in Germany. This reactor design was called in European Pressurized reactor  and internationalized name of reactor is evolutionary power reactor but is now  supplying name EPR by Areva.

As 2010 four EPR units are under construction. The first two in Finland and  France are both facing costly construction delays. Construction commenced on two additional Chinese units in 2009 and 2010.

In July 2008 the French president announced a second would be built in France due to high oil and gas prices. Penly was chosen as the site in 20009 and  Construction should start in 2012.

The main design objectives of generation third  EPR are increased safety while providing enhanced economic competitiveness though improvements to previous PWR designs scaled up to an electrical power out put of 1650  M.W. e  with thermal power 4500 Mwt. The reactor can use  5 per cent of enriched uranium  oxide fuel, optionally  with up to 50 per cent mixed uranium Plutonium  oxide fuel. The EPR  is the  evolutionary  descendant of Frame tome N4 and Siemens power generation division on KONVOI reactors.

The EPR design have several active passive protection measures against accidents.
. Four independent emergency cooling systems , each capable of cooling down the reactor after shut down  I.e. (300 per cent redundancy.
. Leak tight containment around reactor.
. An extra container and cooling area if molten core manages to escape the reactor.
. Two -layer concrete wall with total thickness 2.6 meters ,designed to withstand impact by airplanes and internal over pressure.

The union of concerned scientists has referred to EPR as the only reactor design under consideration in United States that “ appears to have the potential to be significantly safer and more secure against attack  than today’s reactors.

As far as design concerned these reactor safe with long life  but we have yet to see these EPRs functioning successfully in any country including  China which building these reactors.