The main components of the European pressurized water reactor

The nuclear industry has to lace the increasing impact of deregulation, cornpelition and new products like the EPR have to rely on all possible means to reduce the generation costs for compensating the high initial investment. As far as the core is concerned this reduction of generation costs is obtained mainly under given power level boundary conditions by increasing the burn-up of the fuel and by providing the margins needed to the operator lo adopt all types of fuel managements which will allow to maximize the availability of the plant. Essentials of the EPR core design basis and some representative results of basic design ncutronic and thermal hydraulic studies are described in the present paper for illustrating the potentials of lhe EPR under the boundary conditions prevailing at lhe end of the Basic Design Phase. © 1999 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.