ASN Report 2017

403 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 14  - Nuclear research and miscellaneous industrial facilities FUNDAMENTALS Safety management in a “hot” laboratory, the LECA example A “hot” laboratory comprises equipment for handling or processing highly radioactive substances. The LECA enables CEA to carry out destructive and non-destructive examinations of spent fuels from various sectors (research reactors, power reactors, naval propulsion). These fuels are received and then transferred to shielded cells, where they undergo cutting operations, various thermal treatments and then physical characterisations. These activities are performed using appropriate equipment, a robust organisation and trained personnel, with a view to controlling the main risks, such as irradiation and contamination of the personnel, criticality and fire. Radiation protection is provided by: ཛྷ ཛྷ shielded cells, for which the thickness of the walls and windows (1) offers protection against ionising radiation and controls the dispersion of radioactive substances; ཛྷ ཛྷ specific ventilation equipped with filters, to control the dispersion of radioactive substances; ཛྷ ཛྷ rolling stock (2) and instructions appropriate to the handling of fuels; ཛྷ ཛྷ personnel trained in the risks relevant to their tasks. The criticality risk, present in storage cell No. 5, is controlled by means of: ཛྷ ཛྷ pits (3) placed under the cell to take the fuels; ཛྷ ཛྷ personnel trained in the storage instructions so that they respect the maximum authorised quantities and the geometrical arrangement of the fissile materials. The fire risk is primarily controlled by means of: ཛྷ ཛྷ dampers, fire doors and fire walls, appropriate electrical equipment and fire-fighting equipment; ཛྷ ཛྷ personnel trained to deal with an outbreak of fire; ཛྷ ཛྷ an organisation limiting the presence of calorific materials. Laboratory for Research and Experimental Fabrication of Advanced Nuclear Fuels (LEFCA) (Cadarache) The LEFCA (BNI 123), commissioned in 1983, is a laboratory in charge of conducting studies on plutonium, uranium, actinides and their compounds in a variety of forms (alloys, ceramics, composites, metal, etc.) with a view to their applications in nuclear reactors. The LEFCA carries out studies aimed at understanding the behaviour of these materials in the reactor and at various stages in the fuel cycle. It also produces devices for experimental irradiation designed to test the behaviour of these materials, as well as carrying out stabilisation and reconditioning of uranium and plutonium bearing materials. In 2014, CEA announced that it would be transferring the LEFCA R&D activities to the Atalante facility in 2017. Then, in 2017, CEA stated that the final shutdown of its facility was scheduled for 2023 and that it intended to transmit its decommissioning file in 2020. As part of the LEFCA’s packaging activities, the acceptance of new materials and the use of the “pins” warehouse for storage were authorised by ASN in 2017. Finally, in July 2017, CEA