20 June 2008
The EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) is the world’s largest nuclear reactor with an installed capacity of 1,600 MWe. It has been developed by French industry as a new generation design that promises to be safer, more reliable and cheaper than reactors built in previous decades. It has been referred to and promoted as the flagship of a hypothetical nuclear renaissance. However, the first attempt to build the EPR reactor in Olkiluoto, Finland cannot be considered a success: since works started in 2005 the project has suffered from massive delays and cost overruns as well as technical and safety problems. The French supplier Areva decided to build a second EPR in France to demonstrate that the mistakes made at the pilot project in Finland will not recur in subsequent EPR builds. However the Flamanville EPR reactor is now following the same troubled route as its Finnish predecessor.
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