Flamanville 3's safety approved

07 March 2007

[ASN, 16 February; Platts 7 March]France's Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) has approved theconstruction of Flamanville 3. Regulators from several European countries contributed toexamining the 1650 MWe design, with ASN concluding that there was nosignificant industrial or radiological risk to the public orenvironment. An ASN statement said that the evolutionary changespresent in the EPR design, relative to preceding French standarddesigns, took into account industrial concerns and were acceptable interms of safety. Furthermore, similarities in EPR's primary andsecondary circuits to previously licensed reactors meant that analysisof the design from first principles was not necessary. Permission tocommence the actual creation of the facility was granted with no fixedexpiry date, although major safety reviews would be carried out everyten years in line with established policy. ASN's decision was made on16 February and forwarded on 7 March to the French government, whichmust still legally review and approve the project before issuing aconstruction licence.

Further information

Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN)

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