The European utility requirement document (EUR)

The major European electricity producers work on a common requirement document for future LWR plants since 1992. They aim at requirements acceptable together by the owners, the public and the authorities. Thus the designers can develop standard LWR designs acceptable everywhere in Europe and the utilities can open their consultations to vendors on common bases. Such a standardisation promotes an improvement of generation costs and of safety; public and authorities acceptance should be improved as well: significant savings are expected in development and construction costs. Since the early stages of the project, the European utility requirement (EUR) group has grown significantly. It now includes utilities from nine European countries. Utilities from two other European countries are joining the group. Specific cooperation agreements are also in progress with a few extra-European partners.