Assessment of the Standard EPRTMReactor against the European Utility Requirements (EUR)

Abstract

The EUR Steering Committee selected the EPRTM design as one of the first designs to be reviewed and assessed against the EUR. This work was completed in 1999 within the framework of a joint working group involving the designer and EUR group representatives taking into account the design work available at that time. The Volume 3 EPR subset revA was issued in December 1999.At the end of 2003, TVO selected the EPRTM reactor for construction on the Olkiluoto 3 and in 2006 EDF decided to launch the construction of an EPRTM reactor on the Flamanville site.At the end of 2006, AREVA proposed to the EUR Steering Committee to undertake a revision of the EPR Volume 3 to take into account the present status of the work but also the evolution of the EUR document (the assessment was done against Volume 2 Rev B, whereas Volume 2 Rev C is now applicable). This proposal was accepted by the EUR Steering Committee in 2007.By early 2009, the EUR organization completed the compliance assessment of AREVA’s EPRTM reactor standard design against the EUR. The EUR organization formally presented with the certificate during a special ceremony held in Brussels on July 15, 2009. This award confirms that the EPRTM reactor can be built throughout Europe and meets international regulatory requirements.The EUR requirements cover an exhaustive range of requirements for a nuclear plant to operate efficiently and safely and include such areas as layout, systems, material, components, probabilistic safety assessment methodology, availability assessment and many more.The EUR assessment was extremely detailed, covering 4,678 requirements. The EPRTM reactor complied with over 99% of these requirements (including the non-applicable ones). The assessment also showed only a 0.1% level of non-compliance, all of which were substantiated by AREVA.Furthermore, in some cases, the EPRTM reactor exceeded the EUR requirements; these include aircraft crash protection (large commercial aircraft are deterministically covered), waste storage capacity, and a design lifetime of 60 years compared to the EUR requirement of 40.This paper presents the highlights of this review.