A Next-Generation Reactor

This article highlights that Electricité de France’s (EDF) N4 nuclear technology has increased European standards of power, efficiency, and safety beyond previous limits. EDF, the Paris-based French national utility, has developed and is operating the N4 reactor, capable of generating 1450 megawatts, at its power plant in Chooz. The N4 was designed to put public safety concerns to rest while providing more power than the previous generation of 1,300-megawatt EDF reactors. This installation represents the next step in French, European, and possibly the world’s nuclear power. Chooz A began operations in 1967 as the first pressurized water reactor (PWR) in France, originally based on the 185-megawatt synchronized PWR Yankee Rowe plant in Massachusetts. Typical reactor safety systems analyze a problem after it occurs. Such a procedure involves painstaking historical, reconstruction that is time-consuming, often difficult to interpret, and less reliable as time passes.