General installation of pressurized water reactors

The installer designs the layout of the equipment and the shape and layout of the buildings to enable the plant to be integrated into the site, its construction, operation (including maintenance and inspection) and dismantling at the end of its life.

Working closely with the teams in charge of equipment and circuit sizing, it carries out an iterative process of drawing up and reviewing installation plans for premises and buildings, as well as the layout plan, from the initial pre-project sketches to the construction drawings. In particular, it defines the interfaces between equipment and civil engineering, as well as the measures required to ensure the safety of the installation. Finally, he carries out his mission by constantly seeking the economic optimum, which generally corresponds to the greatest compactness compatible with the satisfaction of safety and operating criteria. By spreading the cost of general installation studies over the entire technical level, the standardization applied in France has made it possible to allocate substantial resources to achieving this optimum.

The article presents the installation criteria applied to the most recent French standard: the N4 - 1,450 MWe stage, benefiting from operating experience feedback from the previous 900 and 1,300 MWe stages.