The EUR document was developed by a number of European utilities, to establish a set of common voluntary requirements for the design of future LWR power plants in Europe. This document can also be applied to a wider, international market.

Some of the expected EUR application benefits are:

• Improved acceptance from the public and the authorities, achieved by using common technical solutions and common safety approaches

• Boosting nuclear energy competitiveness by controlling investment costs through the prescription of design standardisation and simplifica­tion, and by setting ambitious plant performance and maintenance cost reduction targets.

The EUR is structured into four volumes:

• Volume 1, ‘Main policies and objectives’, outlines the major objectives of the EUR organisation and the main policies laid down in the EUR document for future nuclear power plants, in aspects such as plant design, safety and licensing, standardisation, operational targets and economic objectives. It also summarises the most important require­ments of Volumes 2 and 4.

• Volume 2, ‘Generic nuclear island requirements’, includes all the generic requirements and European utility preferences for the NI, which are not related to any specific design. Requirements are organised by chapters according to specific topics, as follows: safety requirements; performance requirements; grid requirements; design basis; codes and standards; material-related requirements; functional requirements: components; functional requirements: systems; containment systems; instrumentation and control and man-machine interface; layout rules; design process and documentation; constructability; operation, maintenance and proce­dures; quality assurance (QA); decommissioning; probabilistic safety analysis (PSA) methodology; performance assessment methodology; and cost assessment information requirements.

• Volume 3, ‘Application of EUR to specific designs’, is divided into a number of subsets. Each subset is dedicated to a specific design which is of interest to the EUR utilities. The volume contains a description of a standard NI, a summary of the analysis of compliance as compared to EUR Volumes 1 and 2, and, where needed, design-dependent require­ments and preferences of the EUR utilities.

• Volume 4, ‘Power generation plant requirements’, outlines the generic requirements in relation to the power generation plant (i. e. the turbine island).