Many new nuclear power plants are currently being built or are at the planning stage worldwide, especially in China, Japan and the USA; however, there are also numerous newbuild projects at the planning or construction stage in Europe, such as in England, France and Finland. For these European projects, the European nuclear power plant operators have drawn up a catalogue of requirements in the shape of the European Utility Requirements (EUR) [13].

The EUR relates to nuclear power plants as a whole, and includes details of specific nuclear power plant actions to be taken into account when designing them, such as earthquake design spectra for minimum earthquake design requirements and specific load/time functions to protect against aircraft impact. The EUR also includes basic design criteria. In terms of construction design, these criteria assume basically that Eurocode standards will be observed.

The EUR is intended to ensure that the various nuclear power plant providers can rate and offer their products based on them. Corresponding qualifications have already been drafted for system strategies for Europe, such as EPR or AP1000.