EPR: The Reactor That Tried to Please Everyone and Satisfied No One

Podcast: Decouple · Dr. Chris Keefer

Opublikowano: 2026-01-15

In this episode of Decouple we deep dive the European Pressurised Reactor and what its troubled construction history reveals about the real constraints on nuclear build out in the modern West. The conversation traces how a design intended to satisfy every regulator through a design philosophy of extreme redundancy and conservative safety margins instead exposed the limits of Western construction capacity, supply chain readiness, and project management culture. The episode also places the EPR in context alongside other large reactor designs, including AP1000 and APR 1400, highlighting how different philosophies around active redundancy, passive safety, modularity, and operational f...