Same confidence at EDF which has no impact to Flamanville

New setback for the PRT. In a process unique to this day, the French nuclear safety authorities, Finnish and British published yesterday a joint declaration questioning the reliability of the current version of the EPR. The new generation of nuclear reactors of Areva is not condemned in bulk, but security authorities invite different stakeholders to improve some key elements. Subject: control software, is the computer program to fly on the day the day a central and stop emergency incident. Described as "complex", the architecture of this software does not - in the State - to ensure the required level of security. For Patrice Lambert - de Diesbach, Director of research at CM - CIC Securities, "this concomittence can not be fortuitous, and stigmatizes the importance of these three authorities of security attached to the rapid resolution of the problem" by Areva and PRT operators.

Potentially even more problematic, in a letter addressed to EDF, the operator of the future Flamanville EPR, DSC, the French authority, asked the national electrician prepare already a plan b. "whether EDF takes into account the recommendations, either it must design a new system, which would take years." "But, from our experts, the first solution is more likely, because EDF is strongly mobilized for this," said Marcial Jorel, Director safety of the reactors at the Institute of radiation protection and nuclear safety.

Flagship of Areva to take advantage of the current revival of the atom in the world, the EPR is experiencing a slow start. The Finnish construction of Olkiluoto, on the Baltic Sea, is already three years behind and cost provisions EUR 2.3 billion to the French nuclear group. A point that the client, the electrician TVO, and its supplier to accuse respectively to drag things. The commissioning of the reactor, expected mid-2012, could even derailing of six additional months, recently said Jouni Silvennoinen, TVO project leader: also engineering difficulties, it has singled out "delays in development" ("Les Echos" from October 16) control system.

The Declaration of yesterday makes record even more complex. Three security authorities believe indeed that the part of the software dedicated to the normal operation and to maintain the reactor under control incident are too dependent of the other. The first come to fail and the station could no longer be controlled failure. As a result, Areva will have to make changes to its software and the additional elements of information here to June 2010.

Confident EDF

Contacted Areva, has estimated that this additional work would have no effect on the current building, in France or Finland. "It is a classical step-by-step validation process for projects of this type." "We largely the time to respond to the requests", assured the "Echos" Claude Jaouen, the head of the reactor of the nuclear group division French. Same confidence at EDF, which has no impact to Flamanville. Asked about the potential severity level of the tripartite declaration, Olivier Gupta, the Deputy Director-General of the ASN, merely mentioned the need for Areva to work "therefore" and "non-trivial". In the letter addressed to EDF the tone is still without detour: account of "the magnitude and the complexity of the demonstrations to provide", DSC believes that Areva finally may not ensure that its software, in its current design, meets the mandatory safety requirements. "This is why, also the efforts that you continue to justify the proposed design, it is your responsibility to examine from now a different arrangement of design", continues the text. All for late December.