French Nuclear Reactor Planned for US Could Explode http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/03/french-nuclear-reactor-planned-for-us.html

Confidential documents revealed to French activist groups this week show that the design for the French Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR and known in Europe as the European Pressurized Reactor) presents a serious safety risk and could explode. The documents, leaked by a source inside the French national utility, Électricité de France (EDF), confirm that corporate profitability is being placed ahead of public safety in the rush to deliver a new reactor design at minimum cost. The documents show that the Areva-designed reactor has been approved for construction and marketed around the world, despite inside knowledge about the reactor's vulnerability to a major accident.

Originally slated for six U.S. sites (and seven reactors) the EPR is currently on track only at the Calvert Cliffs site in Maryland, where it is very likely the next recipient of federal loan guarantees and is the reference application which would streamline the way for other EPRs elsewhere. It is under construction in Finland and France, where both sites are mired in huge delays, technical flaws and massive cost-over-runs. A group of scientific experts, retained by the French anti-nuclear network, Sortir du nucléaire, have analyzed the leaked EDF documents available in French, but being translated into English shortly