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EPR – completely safe?

09.09.05

Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), the company that is about to build a new nuclear power plant to Finland has chosen the model of the reactor to be European Pressurized Reactor (EPR). It would be the biggest nuclear reactor built so far (1600 MW). EPR is a German-French design marketed by Framatome ANP and Siemens.

Greenpeace and Finnish Association for Nature Conservation highlighted the safety flaws of the EPR in their statement for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, dated 26.4.2004. Unfortunately, today the document exists only in Finnish.

Download the statement (PDF, 159 kB) >>

The EPR is a prototype plant that hasn’t been built before. It is also the first Generation III reactor of this type.

The EPR has been claimed to be totally safe. However, this is nothing new as every new nuclear reactor has been claimed completely safe at its time, and dangerous accidents and incidents have always come more or less as a surprise.

TVO and the manyfacturer Framatome claim the EPR to be so safe that it can even last a crash of a passenger aircraft without significant releases to the environment.

Mr. John Large, a recognised and experienced nuclear safety specialist from Large & Associates doesn’t buy this claim. He concludes that the Olkiluoto-3 should not have been given a construction permit as there were not enough proofs for it meeting the Finnish safety criteria.

See the report: http://www.greenpeace.se/files/1300-1399/file_1375.pdf
See the accompanying power point presentation:
http://www.largeassociates.com/olkiluoto3.ppt