7 Feb (NucNet): France’s nuclear safety authority announced today that it has approved the safety options of the Atmea-1 nuclear reactor unit being developed by the Atmea joint venture between Areva and Japanese partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
ASN (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire) said the safety review had been carried out at Atmea’s request.
The objective of the review, which began in June 2010, was to evaluate the reactor’s safety options against French safety regulations.
The review was carried out with the support of the French Institute for radiation protection and nuclear safety (IRSN).
Atmea said the review was “an important step” towards demonstrating that the reactor could be licensed.
In 2008 a team of experts under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency reviewed the Atmea-1 design and evaluated it against IAEA safety standards.
Atmea-1 is a mid-sized Generation III+ pressurised water reactor of 1,100 megawatts.
The unit is primarily intended for export to countries where the grid is not compatible with more powerful units, such as Areva’s 1,600 MW European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR).
Atmea-1 is one of three technologies under consideration for a first nuclear unit in Jordan.
The other two are Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s 700-megawatt Candu-6 and Atomstroyexport’s AES-92 VVER-1000.
More details online (in French only):
www.asn.fr/index.php/S-informer/Actualites/2012/Projet-de-reacteur-ATMEA1
