Safety fears raised about Areva EPR in Europe and U.S.

The New York Times has reported allegations of safety significant design flaws with nuclear fuel rod cladding, as well as the danger of control rod ejection accidents, at the French Areva "European Pressurized Reactor" targeted at Flammanville on the Normandy Coast. Meanwhile, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has continued to question the safety of interconnections between safety and non-safety "Instrumentation and Control" systems at the Areva "Evolutionary Power Reactor" targeted to be built at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Maryland, Nine Mile Point on the Lake Ontario shoreline in New York State, and elsewhere. See the NRC press release here.

Areva credit rating lowered as reactor costs rise at its Finland site

Standard & Poor's has lowered the credit of Areva, the French government-owned global nuclear corporation, after new delays and cost over-runs plagued the company's reactor project in Finland. An additional $493 million bill was announced last month along with another six-month delay in the ever-moving projected completion date for Areva's EPR reactor under construction at Olkiluoto, Finland. The reactor is optimistically expected to be operational by the end of 2012.