September-October 2018 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2018 NuclearPlantJournal.com 21 implemented after the Fukushisma accident),  decrease the core melt frequency and even in the case of core melt no permanent relocation of population is needed in the direct vicinity of the plant. The EPR has a net electrical power of circa 1650 MWe. This high unit output is particularly suitable for regions with extensive, robust electricity grids and areas in which the population density is high, with little space available for building power plants. It has been designed for a 60 year operation lifetime (as compared to 40 years for existing plants). 1. What makes the EPR a special design, globally? The main design objectives of the third generation EPR design are increased safety while providing enhanced economic competitiveness through improvements to previous Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) designs scaled up to an electrical power output of around 1650 MW with thermal power circa 4600 MW. The EPR is the evolutionary descendant of the French N4 and Siemens Power Generation Division “Konvoi” reactors. The EPR design has several active and passive protection measures against accidents:  Four independent emergency divisions, in particular each division providing cooling capability to remove the decay heat after the reactor’s initial shutdown,  Two-layer containment concrete wall around the reactor with total thickness 2.6 m (8.5 feet).  designed to withstand impact by aircrafts (commercial and military aircrafts),  designed to be leak-tight after an accident inducing internal overpressure,  An extra container and cooling area (core catcher) inside the containment to manage severe accident in case of the molten core escaping the reactor vessel. 2. Please describe application of data analytics to EPR? The primary use of data analytics in the frame of EPR projects concerns the post-processing of available data in order to improve the modeling of EPR key parameters as well as key components behaviors within 60 years’ operation. In addition, tremendous amount of technical documents and data is generated by an EPR Project. Therefore, as part of its strategy within Digital Transformation, Framatome is ready to offer its customers improved processes for managing this massive quantity of information and documentation. Computer-generated image of the EPR reactor. © Framatome , Image and Process. (Continued on page 22)