ASN Report 2017

246 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 initiative in 2018, which involves entering controlled areas in normal working overalls. With regard to environmental protection, ASN considers that the site must improve its management of the containment of liquid radioactive effluents. ASN also considers that the site must improve the operating checks of equipment items that use refrigerants for the thermal regulation of certain premises, even though the emissions of these gases which contribute to the greenhouse effect dropped significantly in 2017. Civaux nuclear power plant ASN considers that the nuclear safety and environmental protection performance of the Civaux NPP on the whole matches ASN’s general assessment of EDF and that its radiation protection performance stands out positively. In the area of safety, ASN has noted that during the reactor 1 refuelling and maintenance outage, the licensee had difficulties in preparing and scheduling a large number of maintenance activities and in providing its contractors with the necessary means to accomplish their tasks. These problems led to errors during the maintenance of equipment important to safety, which were subsequently corrected. ASN considers that the site must improve these aspects during the next reactor outages. With regard to operating activities, ASN considers that the measures implemented to improve the rigour of operational management of the reactors must be continued. At the request of ASN 1 , reactor 1was shut down in February  2017 to perform analyses on the channel heads of the steam generators displaying high carbon content. In view of the analysis results, and provided that more restrictive operating procedures are applied, ASN has given its consent to restart reactor 1. ASN observes that occupational radiation protection is integrated satisfactorily in work preparation and performance. ASN nevertheless considers that the sitemust improve themanagement of worker access to areas that are subject to temporary access restrictions in order to limit the risk of exposure to ionising radiation. ASN considers that the site must improve its operation of equipment that contributes to environmental protection by reinforcing its management of liquid effluent containment to ensure stricter compliance with the applicable rules. Labour inspection in the nuclear power plants The personnel in charge of labour inspection continued their oversight actions on the work presenting a risk of exposure to asbestos, particularly in the performance of maintenance work during reactor outages. They also conducted inspections on the construction sites of the buildings that are to house the future ultimate backup diesel-generator sets. They also verified compliance with the rules governing the secondment of foreign employees and continued the actions in progress since 2013 on the risks 1. ASN resolution 2016-DC-0572 of 18th October 2016 prescribing inspections and measurements on the channel head of certain steam generators of the nuclear power reactors operated by Électricité de France – Société Anonyme (EDF-SA). of work at height and the conformity of work equipment. Despite the efforts made, these latter actions can be further improved. The labour inspectors checked implementation of the action plans established by the licensees further to the work equipment conformity verifications decided in 2016. They consider that the time frames proposed by the licensees to definitively bring the fuel loading machines into compliance, from the point of view of worker safety, are not ambitious enough. Alongside this, the inspections concerning management of the explosion risk have begun. Several failures to meet regulatory obligations were observed in this context. Lastly, specific investigations were carried out following work accidents and in response to specific requests concerning employees of outside companies. 1.2 Radiation protection in the medical field Radiotherapy and brachytherapy ASN performed 11 inspections in radiotherapy departments in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in 2017. ASN takes positive note of the renewal of the particle accelerator pool; 3 inspections were carried out to verify the installation conditions of the new devices before treating the first patients. Three inspections of brachytherapy departments were also carried out, one further to the reporting of a Significant Radiation Protection Event (ESR) by the Bordeaux University Hospital. In 2017, ASN oversight focused in particular on risk management and on the implementation of new techniques in radiotherapy, including hypofractionated treatments. ASN considers that the requirements of ASN resolution 2008-DC-0103 setting the quality assurance obligations in radiotherapy are satisfied on the whole. Progress is nevertheless expected in some departments in which internal communication and the quality objectives are not sufficiently promoted by senior management. ASN considers that sufficient means are devoted to medical physics, but insists on the need to look ahead and assess changes in demand for medical physicists to manage projects to put in place new techniques or new equipment. Although all the departments carry out prospective analyses of the risks to which patients are exposed, they are not always taken to any depth and are too rarely updated prior to the use of new equipment or a new technique. Consequently, the departments are not always able to identify potential failures or the actions to take to prevent them from occurring. All the radiotherapy departments have an organisation that enables adverse events to be detected, recorded and dealt with. Further progress must also be made with event analyses, so that they do not stop at the immediate causes but go on to examine the root causes, including the organisational factors. As a general rule, monitoring of the corrective actions applied and the assessment of their effectiveness can be improved. NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE