ASN Report 2017

397 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 14  - Nuclear research and miscellaneous industrial facilities 1.1.5 Revision of the prescriptions concerning water intake and effluent discharges In July 2017, ASN completed its review of the applications for updates to the requirements concerning water intake and effluent discharges for the BNIs on the Cadarache site. It thus set limit values and defined procedures for effluent discharge and water consumption. 1.2 Facilities operations reports 1.2.1 CEA Centres Cadarache Centre The Cadarache Centre is located at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, in the Bouches-du-Rhone département . It employs about 5,000 people and occupies a surface area of 1,600 hectares. As part of CEA’s strategy of specialising its centres, the Cadarache site deals mainly with nuclear energy. Twenty one BNIs are sited on it. The purpose of these Cadarache centre installations is R&D to support and optimise existing reactors and to design new generation systems. The Cadarache centre also comprises facilities under construction, notably the Jules Horowitz Reactor (RJH). In 2017, ASN carried out about fifty inspections of the BNIs in this centre. ASN considers that the level of safety remains on the whole satisfactory. It notes that the disparities previously observed between the facilities within the centre are shrinking. More specifically, the operational rigorousness applied in the facilities called STD (Solid waste Treatment Station) and STE (Effluents Treatment Station) has returned to an acceptable level. ASN will be attentive to ensuring that CEA meets the undertakings made for these BNIs. The Cadarache centre must run several projects of varying scope, type and implications at the same time: work on decommissioning and on recovery and packaging of radioactive waste, BNI construction or redevelopment work, notably as a result of the periodic safety reviews. ASN observes greater rigorousness in the quality control of these operations and in compliance with the regulation deadlines. Saclay Centre The Saclay centre, covering 223 hectares, is located about 20 km south-west of Paris, in the Essonne département . About 6,000 persons work there. Since 2005, this centre has been primarily devoted to physical sciences, fundamental research and applied research. The applications concern physics, metallurgy, electronics, biology, climatology, simulation, chemistry and the environment. The main aim of applied nuclear research is to optimise the operation of the French NPPs and their safety. Eight BNIs are located within this centre. It also houses an office of the French national institute for nuclear science and technology (training institute) and two industrial firms: Technicatome, which designs nuclear reactors for naval propulsion and CIS bio international (see point 3.2). Since 1st February 2017, the Saclay and Fontenay-aux-Roses centres have been grouped within the same department, called the CEA Paris-Saclay Department. ASN considers that the BNIs of the Saclay Centre are operated in satisfactory conditions of safety. A new organisation was implemented in 2017 in order to improve the management of the decommissioning projects, with the creation of the Facilities Clean-out and Decommissioning Department. During the period of consolidation of this new organisation, ASN remains vigilant with regard to the maintained control of safety and radiation protection in the Saclay BNIs. ASN is also attentive to changes in management of BNI liquid effluents, given the fact that the room containing the front-end tanks of BNI 35 is not in use (for safety reasons), and to ensuring that their removal to the Marcoule centre continues in good conditions. CEA also changed its waste management strategy, notably by postponing the BNI 72 order (see chapter  16) owing to delays in the construction of replacement equipment. Finally, the decommissioning and the recovery and packaging of legacy waste operations are behind schedule. ASN will examine these delays as part of the CEA decommissioning and radioactive materials and waste management strategy file and the decommissioning files for each BNI concerned (see chapters 15 and 16). FOCUS The periodic safety reviews The Environment Code requires that the licensees carry out a periodic safety review of their facilities every ten years. These periodic safety reviews are thus an opportunity for upgrades or improvements in fields in which the regulations and safety requirements have changed, in particular seismic resistance, protection against fire and confinement. Unlike the nuclear power reactors in service, the other facilities (covered in chapters 13, 14, 15 and 16 of this report) are not generic but have implications specific to each BNI (more particularly in terms of safety, environmental protection and radiation protection). Twenty six LUDD (Laboratories, Plants, Waste and Decommissioning) facilities submitted a periodic safety review in 2017 (previously, one to six files per year). ASN thus adapted its organisation and developed new methodologies for processing these numerous files with specific implications. In 2016, it also initiated on-site inspection campaigns specifically devoted to the periodic safety review of the facilities. A team of ASN inspectors thus supplements the analysis of a file with “field” inspections lasting several days. The aim is thus to carry out spot-checks to ensure that the licensee is effectively implementing the action plan it defined for the periodic safety review, notably with regard to regulatory compliance.