International views on nuclear safety

Safety has always been an important objective in nuclear technology. Starting with a set of sound physical principles and prudent design approaches, safety concepts have gradually been refined and cover now a wide range of provisions related to design, quality and operation. Research, the evaluation of operating experiences and probabilistic risk assessments constitute an essential basis and international co-operation plays a significant role in that context. Concerning future developments a major objective for new reactor concepts, such as the EPR, is to practically exclude a severe core damage accident with large scale consequences outside the plant. To cite this article: A. Birkhofer, C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 1059–1065.