GERMANY NEXT-GENERATION OF BOILING WATER-REACTORS

Siemens is currently developing - in cooperation with the German nucle ar utilities and with support from various European partners - the SWR 1000, a new boiling water reactor product line with passive safety fe atures and an electric output of around 1000 MW. The safety concept of the SWR 1000 consists of passive safety equipment combined with activ e systems and through this diversity, meets the goal of reducing the p robability of core damage even further compared to existing plants. Fu rthermore, the design is aimed at being able to control a postulated c ore melt accident to such an extent that the consequences of the accid ent remain restricted to the plant, making wide-scale emergency respon se actions in the vicinity of the plant, such as evacuation or relocat ion, unnecessary. Despite these very high safety requirements, the obj ective of ensuring competitive power generating costs compared to larg e-capacity nuclear power plants as well as coal-fired stations must al so be attained.