ASN Report 2017

231 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 08  - Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection Hauts-de-France The Châlons-en-Champagne and Lille divisions jointly regulate nuclear safety, radiation protection and the transport of radioactive substances in the 5 départements of the Hauts-de-France region. I n 2017, ASN carried out 101 inspections in the Hauts-de- France region, comprising 27 inspections in the Gravelines Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), one at Somanu in Maubeuge, 67 in small-scale nuclear activities and 6 in the transport of radioactive substances. ASN also carried out 14 days of labour inspection in the Gravelines NPP. During 2017, 11 significant events rated level 1 on the INES scale were notified by the Gravelines NPP. In small-scale nuclear activities 5 events were rated level 1 on the INES scale (in particular loss or theft of devices for detecting lead in paint and irradiation by customs authority scanners), plus 10 events involving radiotherapy treatments rated level 1 on the ASN-SFRO scale. The installations and activities to regulate comprise: ཛྷ ཛྷ BNIs: -- the Gravelines NPP (6 reactors of 900 MWe) operated by EDF; -- the Somanu (Société de maintenance nucléaire) site operated by Areva in Maubeuge (Nord département) ; ཛྷ ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: -- 19 external-beam radiotherapy departments; -- 3 brachytherapy departments; -- 27 nuclear medicine departments; -- 92 centres performing fluoroscopy- guided interventional procedures; -- 126 computed tomography scanners; -- some 4,600 medical and dental radiology devices; ཛྷ ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the veterinary, industrial and research sectors : -- 600 industrial and research establishments, including 31 companies exercising an industrial radiography activity, 3 particle accelerators of which 2 are cyclotrons, 38 laboratories situated mainly in the universities of the region, 19 companies using gamma ray densitometers and 280 users of devices for detecting lead in paint; -- 340 veterinary surgeries or clinics practising diagnostic radiology; ཛྷ ཛྷ organisations approved by ASN: -- 4 agencies of approved organisations in the area of small- scale nuclear activities. 1. Assessment by domain 1.1 The nuclear installations Gravelines nuclear power plant ASN considers that the radiation protection and environmental protection performance of the Gravelines NPP is, on the whole, in line with the general assessment of EDF plant performance, but its nuclear safety results are below the general average. The improvement in nuclear safety performance seen in 2016 did not continue in 2017, on the contrary, results got worse, including in areas in which the NPP had shown no weaknesses until now. The site must in particular pursue its continuous improvement measures in the detection and correction of deviations and adherence to operating instructions. With regard to maintenance, ASN observes that the downturn in results is partly due to the cascading of several maintenance outages during the summer, on one pair of reactors in particular. ASN was obliged to intervene to speed up the diagnosis and repair of pipes with increased corrosion susceptibility due to their seaside location, and of supporting structures whose earthquake resistance could not guarantee availability of the heat sink under all circumstances.