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EPR Reactor

A PWR reactorPWR reactorThis reactor is a PWR reactor - a pressurized water reactor. This is a specific type of Nuclear Reactor--in that it is pressurized water. This is also the most common type of reactor used and produced. The fuel rods are pressurized with helium, and the fission gas products result in more stability; as fuel "burns" in the reactor, the density increases resulting in small voids developing. Helium pressurization is necessary as these voids can cause potential rupture of fuel rods. Furthermore, the design, it is designed by FramatoneFramatoneFramatone is a French nuclear reactor business, majority owned by France electric. It first formed to license PWR reactor designs, and then went on to produce more nuclear reactor based products. Originally licensing and construction, it supplies the entire reactor life cycle, including the design of the EPR Reactor & other tasks. (See Also: Hydrogen Recombiners - Framatone built the leading hydrogen recombiner), and the name is the European Pressurized reactor. The design service lifetime is 60 years.

(This is mostly paraphrased from wikipedia :3)

The main objectives is to be more economically competitive and still deliver power. It was designed to use uranium more efficiently then gen2 reactors, as it is a gen3 - and it uses "approximately 17% less uranium per kWh generated".

The EPR design has several active and passive protection measures against accidents:

  • Four independent emergency cooling systems, each providing the required cooling of the decay heat (i.e., 300% redundancy)
  • Leak-tight containment around the reactor
  • An extra container and cooling area if a molten core manages to escape the reactor (see containment building and core catcher)
    • Containment BuildingContainment Buildingit is the reinforced steel/lead/concrete structure enclosing the nuclear reactor. It is designed to contain the escape of radioactive steam or gas between 275-550 kPa * It is the forth step in the nuclear reactor defense-in-depth design against radioactive release Either free standing or attached to a missile shield - must be strong enough to withstand a 9/11 attack Although it is made to withstand accidents, it is NOT meant to condense/contain steam - like in the 3 mile and fukushima accide
  • Two-layer concrete wall with a total thickness of 2.6 m, designed to withstand impact by aeroplanes and internal overpressure, and a low vacuum in the annulus space between the two layers