ASN Report 2017

427 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 15  - Decommissioning of Basic Nuclear Installations 2.3.2 The UP2-400 spent fuel reprocessing plant and associated facilities Commissioned in 1996, the former UP2-400 facility (BNI 33) has been in final shutdown state since 1st January 2004. Final shutdown also concerned three BNIs associated with the UP2-400 facility (see chapter 13, point 1.2.1): BNI 38 (STE2 facility and AT1 plant), BNI 47 (ÉLAN IIB facility) and BNI 80 (HAO facility). The ongoing operations in the four BNIs concern waste retrieval and packaging and decommissioning. Retrieval and packaging of legacy waste (RCD) Unlike the waste produced by the new UP2-800 and UP3-A plants at La Hague that is packaged directly on-line, most of the waste produced by the first UP2-400 plant was stored in bulk without any final packaging. The operations involved in retrieving this waste are technically difficult and require the use of considerable resources. The difficulties associated with the age of the waste, in particular the need for characterisation prior to any retrieval and processing, confirm ASN’s approach which, for any project, requires the licensees to assess the corresponding production of waste and make provision for processing and packaging as and when the waste is produced. The retrieval of the waste contained in the old storage facilities on the La Hague site is also a precondition for the decommissioning and clean-out of these storage facilities. The retrieval of legacy waste from the La Hague site therefore presents major concerns for nuclear safety and radiation protection which ASN monitors with particular attention. Furthermore, retrieval of the site’s legacy waste is one of the Areva group’s major commitments, made within the framework of the ministerial authorisations to start up new spent fuel reprocessing plants (UP3-A and UP2-800) at the beginning of the 1990s. Over the years, retrieval of this waste has fallen considerably behind the initial schedule and continued to do so in recent years. ASN considers that the deadlines can no longer be pushed back given that the buildings in which this legacy waste is stored are ageing and no longer comply with current safety standards. ASN considers in particular that Areva NC must recover the legacy waste produced by operation of the UP2-400 facility as rapidly as possible, and more specifically the sludges stored in the STE2 silos, the waste from the HAO facility and silo 130 and the fission products solutions stored in the SPF2 unit. Disposal routes or new interim storage facilities must be definitively decided upon, because their implementation involves large-scale projects: further postponement would jeopardise compliance with the deadlines set by the Environment Code which states that the owners of medium- level long-lived waste produced before 2015 must package it by 2030 at the latest (see the video on the Rules for recovery Decommissioning work on the slab of the HAO South facility silo of the UP2-400 plant. Areva spent fuel reprocessing plant on the La Hague site.