NRC asks Areva for more proof design will work

Federal regulators have asked Areva to prove that some of the digital controls for its new power plant design would function properly.

Both sides agree it’s a temporary snag in the approval process of Areva’s U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor design. Getting U.S. EPRs approved and built has been cited as an important factor in Areva’s growth in the Lynchburg area.

Regulators and company officials expect to resolve the issue soon.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has expressed concerns about Areva’s control room design in previous meetings, but last week it distributed a news release stating that Areva has more explaining to do.

“The company has yet to demonstrate how some aspects of the EPR reactor’s digital instrumentation and control system meet NRC requirements,” the news release stated.

The company needs to show that the EPR’s safety controls would function independently and without disruptive interference from other parts of the system, the news release said.

It is rare, but not unheard of, for the NRC to issue a news release about individual steps in the design review process. “A press release is usually called for when the staff has to formally tell an applicant it’s not on a path to success,” NRC spokesman Scott Burnell wrote in an e-mail.

For example, last year the agency wrote a release about Westinghouse’s need to show that the shield building on its new reactor would be strong enough to meet requirements.

Areva responded to the NRC’s concerns in its official corporate blog, calling the issues “old news” that had already aired in the media. “The press release … is a normal and expected part of the design certification process, and Areva already has begun addressing the issues raised in the communication,” the blog said.

Areva spokesman Jarret Adams said in a written statement that Areva would give the NRC details on the timeline of its design revisions this week.

Burnell said the NRC fully expects the situation to be resolved.

In the future, problems such as this could be solved at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research campus under construction in Bedford County.

Bob Bailey, executive director, said the facility will include the first simulator where companies could show regulators how their digital control rooms would work.

Currently, nuclear reactor control rooms use analog controls that were designed decades ago, when the last reactors were built in the U.S., Bailey said.

“This is not an issue that is unique to Areva. It’s an issue that the entire industry has to address,” said CAER Executive Director Bob Bailey. “It’s not that people don’t understand the digital controls, but (they have) to demonstrate that when you use them to operate a nuclear power plant, that nothing unexpected happens.”

CAER and its control room simulator are scheduled to open next year, Bailey said.

Catherine Mosley, an Areva communications employee in Lynchburg, said in an e-mail that the NRC’s concerns relate to the engineering of the digital controls and the issues should be resolved very soon.

However, Areva does plan to use CAER’s simulator to design “human interface elements” of future control rooms, Mosley said.