The report presented to you sets out the first part of the work by Mr Claude Birraux on the safety of nuclear installations. This is the eighth occasion on which the rapporteur for the "Office parlementaire d'évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques (OPECST) [Parliamentary Office for the evaluation of choices in science and technology] has reviewed the continuous challenge represented by the search for the highest level of safety that is humanly possible in the field of the safety of nuclear installations. This task is in two parts: the first, consisting of these two volumes, is forward-looking, and involves analysing the scientific, safety and economic issues raised by the Franco-German project for a pressurised water reactor (EPR) intended to take the place of the nuclear power plants currently in service, as from the year 2010. The second, which will be covered in two other volumes to be submitted for appraisal by OPECST towards the end of the year, will review the situation regarding the implementation of the 118 recommendations made in the seven previous reports on the safety of nuclear installations; it will thus identify those areas in which progress is being made, as well as those where there is none. The parliamentary Office considered that it was important to evaluate the approach and the substantial amount of work done in recent years in a field so sensitive as concerns public opinion.