In one of the European Commission DG-XIII Directorate’s teleworking projects, France’s electrical utility Electricite de France, France Telecom and Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG are combining their efforts to set up a teleworking network to optimise the sharing of information and expert valuations between nuclear plants all over Europe. One of the aims of the project is to improve nuclear safety in eastern European sites. The Community is funding 30% of the costs of an 18-month pilot study for Prolink – PROfessional telework LINK, says Son Phan, research and development project manager at Electricite de France. The pilot project, says Phan, will identify all of the technical, economic and regulatory problems to putting in such a system. We will do benchmarks on the system and evaluate it; we’re putting together the user requirements now. The idea, he says, is to offer a telework link to Electricite de France agencies in eastern Europe and to centres with whom we have contracts for technical assistance and to improve their security and operations. This telecommunications link enables us to conserve our expertise and employment in France, while extending the all of Electricite de France’s resources to eastern Europe. Among the features the companies will be testing over the 18 months are France Telecom’s Visiophone video conferencing, Transtatel simultaneous translation and electronic mail services. Once the pilot is over, the cost of installing the system will be borne by the participants. This year will see experimentation between Electricite de France Lyon and the nuclear power centre at Mochovce in Slovakia. Experimentation with other centres in eastern Europe will come later, Phan said.
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