Framatome ANP, a joint subsidiary of Areva and Siemens, has formed a new unit focusing on commercial nuclear generation in North America. The New Plants Deployment team will lead the North American deployment of the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR), and support the global project to develop a Generation IV high temperature gas reactor.

Ray Ganthner heads up the new unit in the effort to license and build EPR and Generation IV plants in the US having previously served as the company’s senior vice president of nuclear engineering and was responsible for nuclear power plant systems engineering and analysis, and engineering programmes for operating plants.

“The US EPR will be part of a global fleet of standardised plants, designed and built in North America. The licensing and engineering work will be done primarily in our Charlotte, North Carolina, and Lynchburg, Virginia, locations,” said Ganthner.

Framatome ANP has begun a dialogue with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to outline its intentions regarding design certification of the EPR and to be sensitive to the agency’s resource planning needs.

For more on this development see the March 2005 edition of NEI