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EPR™ Safety Robustness
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AREVA and TS PLZEN partnership in Czech Republic
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Position Paper - Safety Framework
Project Profile Hinkley Point - February 2012
The EPR™ power plant at a glance
The EPR™ power plant has been designed to meet extremely high safety criteria. It is resistant to external hazards due to a sturdy concrete shell. The reactor building's dual-wall containment and a specific compartment isolate the core perfectly in the event of a meltdown accident. Safety is enhanced through a quadruple redundant safeguard system. As for the control room man-machine interface, it provides quality information in real time.
An evolutionary design, safe and competitive
The reactor containment building has two walls: an inner pre-stressed concrete housing with a metallic liner (2) and an outer reinforced concrete shell (1).
It houses the reactor coolant system, whose main components are the reactor vessel (3), the steam generators (4), the pressurizer (5) and the reactor coolant pumps (6).
Inside the containment building, it is located a specially-designed corium spreading area (7). In the event of core meltdown, this is where any molten core escaping from the reactor vessel would be collected, retained and cooled.
The turbine, the alternator and the transformer are housed in the turbine building (8). This equipment transforms steam into electricity. The transformer is connected to the grid.
Diesel generators, housed in two separate buildings (9), supply electricity to the safety functions, in the event of a power blackout.
A set of redundant safeguard systems
The main safety systems are organized into four sub-systems or "trains". Each is capable of providing 100% safety functions alone.
Each train is installed in one of the four emergency buildings (1), separated by the reactor building (2). Simultaneous failure of the trains is thereby avoided.
A strong double concrete shell
The outershell (1) covers:
- the reactor building
- the used fuel building (2)
- two of the four safeguards buildings (3)
The other two safeguard buildings are protected by being in a different location (4).
Increased performance of the human-machine Interface
The entire plant is monitored and operated from the control room (8) where all operating data is centralized. It is located in one of the safeguard buildings and is protected by the outer shell.
The control room is extremely user-friendly. The design takes account of the latest technological developments and operating feedback from existing plants.
From the earliest stages of the project, the human-machine interface has been a top priority. The computerized control room is equipped with the most up-to-date digital technology, giving operators full control over all parameters important for plant operation.
The reliability of the operators’ actions is further improved by the quality and relevance of real-time summary data for the reactor and plant.
A remote shutdown station can be used in the unlikely event that the control room is unavailable.
