French, UK, Finnish Regulators: Have Raised Areva EPR Issues

PARIS (Dow Jones)--French, Finnish and U.K. regulators Monday have all raised questions with Areva SA (CEI.FR) over the control and instrumentation system of its flagship nuclear reactor, they said in a joint statement Monday.

French state-controlled nuclear group Areva is promoting its Evolutionary Power Reactor, or EPR, around the world. Construction of EPRs is underway in Finland and France and Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) is gearing up to deploy the technology in the U.K.

"In carrying out individual assessments, we have all raised issues regarding the EPR control and instrumentation systems," said France's ASN, the U.K.'s HSE and Finland's STUK, adding companies licensed to build the EPR, or Areva, are "in the process of addressing" these issues.

The issues center primarily on ensuring the adequacy of the safety systems used to maintain control of a plant if it goes outside normal conditions, and their independence from the control systems used to operate the plant under normal conditions, the three regulators said.

An Areva spokeswoman said the safety of the EPR hasn't been called in to question, and the company is working with regulators to provide them with extra information.

If there were to be changes they would be "adaptations," she said. Areva is in a "perfectly normal certification process," she said.
-By Adam Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires, +33 1 40171756 ; [email protected]
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091102-710144.html