2023-12-01 18:40:56
Engineers work on the Everest experiment, in Cadarache. (Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP) NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
REPORTAGE – An experiment aims to prove that the Nuward project led by EDF will be cooled automatically in the event of an accident.
Special envoy to Cadarache
After spending decades increasing the power of nuclear power plants to make them more profitable – the best symbol being the EPR with its 1600 megawatts (MW) – manufacturers now swear only by the “miniaturization”, quite relative, of reactors. In France and abroad, the fashionable word is “SMR”, for “small modular reactor”, or “small modular reactor” in English. « SMRs are low to medium power reactors, from 50 MW à 300 MW, which use existing technologies available on the shelves, and whose modularity will allow mass manufacturing in factories, to reduce construction times and costs », summarizes Jean-Michel Ruggieri, director of the Research Institute on Nuclear Systems for Low-Carbon Energy Production (Iresne) at the CEA. The idea of these small installations is not to replace large reactors existing or under construction, but…
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