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France's nuclear watchdog said Thursday it had questioned the safety standards of a cooling system used across the country's nuclear power industry, saying that a design flaw could theoretically unleash a major accident. The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), a state agency that vets safety standards in France's nuclear energy sector, said it had told operator Electricite de France (EDF) to give "priority to examining this question" and wanted a reply by the end of the year. "It is a potential anomaly. It has not been confirmed 100 percent, but we have doubts in the present circumstances," ASN's deputy director-general, Alain Schmitt, told AFP. The suspected problem lies in part of the cooling system. The system, which draws heat away from the reactor vessel by bathing it in cold water, is vital for controlling the nuclear process. The water has to circulate all the time; if it stops, an operational reactor can explode or melt down. Under the French system, there is a primary and backup coolant system, both of which are supplied by tanks that, in turn, are fed from a central reservoir of water drawn from the sea or a nearby river. If the primary coolant system ruptures, the backup is automatically activated. The potential problem, said ASN, is in the filters in the tanks. If these filters are blocked by debris, that could cripple the backup system, it said. "If the points we raise turn out to be true, safety standards would be affected, because there would not be a reliable long-term cooling of the reactor if the primary coolant system breaks down," it said. A spokesman for EDF confirmed that "questions had been raised" about the filters. "We attach importance to this problem, which does not mean however that there is any risk to reactor operations," it said. French nuclear experts said the filter issue was common to the design of pressurised water reactors around the world. France derives nearly three-quarters of its electricity needs from the atom. EDF, a state-owned giant that is the de-facto monopoly supplier of electricity in France, has 19 power stations, with 58 reactors. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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