Developing civil nuclear industry technology

France and Germany cooperated closely between 1997 and 1999 in the development of a generation of nuclear power stations that were equipped with an enhanced pressurized water reactor (PWR). The design of this plant was based on the principle that even in the extremely unlikely event of a complete loss of all active safety features, the radiological consequences of the incident would be contained within the immediate surroundings of the plant. Other European research (France, Germany UK and other partners) worked on an advanced Fast Reactor design (European Fast Reactor – EFR), which aimed at burning plutonium in large quantities, and at the transmuting of long-lived waste isotopes arising out of reprocessing into shorter-lived isotopes.