In July 2019 the French nuclear safety authority ASN issued an opinion on the safety of an outline EPR New Model (EPR 2) design. It found that general safety was on the whole satisfactory, though identifying areas for further examination. The most notable simplification is a single layer containment building as opposed to the EPR’s double layer. ASN highlighted that the EPR design basis assumption that primary and secondary cooling circuit piping could not fail may no longer be appropriate for the simplified EPR 2, and requires additional safety demonstrations.