ASN Report 2017

450 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 16  - Radioactive waste and contaminated sites and soils can have an overall view of the subject and establish a joint position on CEA’s strategy. ASN will issue an opinion on this strategy in 2018. Facilities operated by CEA to support this strategy Facilities under construction ཛྷ ཛྷ Diadem - BNI 177 By Decree 2016-793 of 14th June 2016, the CEA was authorised to create the BNI called Diadem on the Marcoule site. This facility is intended for the storage of containers of irradiating waste emitting beta and gamma rays or rich in alpha emitters, pending their disposal in Cigéo , or low and intermediate level short-lived (LL/ILW-SL) waste whose characteristics – dose rate in particular – cannot be accepted as is in the CSA. The maximum storage duration for each radioactive waste container is set at fifty years. Diadem occupies an important position in CEA’s management strategy for ILW-LL and LL/ILW-SL radioactive waste. Its entry into service will allow the decommissioning of certain installations, especially the Phénix reactor (BNI 71), and the retrieval and packaging of legacy waste held by CEA (at the Fontenay-aux-Roses Centre in particular) to be carried out. At the end of 2017, the civil engineering work was almost completed, the lining of the disposal vault compartments and the installation of the storage stands was in progress, as was the finishing work (masonry and sealing). ASN resolution of 17th November 2016 supplements the provisions of the creation authorisation application and stipulates the elements of the commissioning authorisation application file for which the date of submission remains to be confirmed by the CEA. These stipulations concern the radioactive waste packages, the facility safety functions, the dimensioning of the facility – particularly the civil engineering, and the integration in the safety baseline requirements of the general requirements relative to defence in depth and the elements important for protection of the interests mentioned in Article L. 593-1 of the Environment Code. They also concern the updating of the on-site emergency plan design study and taking into account the conclusions of the stress tests, particularly the defining of a “hardened safety core” for the facility. These stipulations also take account of ASN resolution 2015-DC-0532 of 17th November 2015 relative to the BNI safety analysis report applicable to the Diadem facility as soon as the commissioning authorisation application file has been submitted. CEA has not yet defined the procedures that will be adopted to adapt the waste packaging to the acceptance specifications of the receiving disposal facilities. In application of Article 6.7 of the Order of 7th February 2012, as of 2019, the CEA plans to stagger the packaging approval applications for intermediate packages, as defined in ASN resolution of 23rd March 2017 relative to packaging. Since the start of the worksite at the end of 2014, ASN has carried out inspections to verify the quality of construction of the structure and that the commitments made by CEA following the technical examination of the BNI creation authorisation application have been met. These inspections showed that this worksite was proceeding under satisfactory conditions. Installations in operation On the Cadarache site ཛྷ ཛྷ Agate facility (BNI 171) The function of the Agate facility, which was authorised by Decree 2009-332 of 25th March 2009, is to concentrate, through evaporation, radioactive aqueous liquid effluents chiefly containing beta- and gamma-emitting radionuclides. The resulting concentrates must then be conditioned in the liquid effluents treatment station of Marcoule. ASN authorised commissioning of this facility through its resolution of 29th April 2014. An end-of-start-up file was communicated by CEA on 30th October 2015. ASN considers that the end-of-start-up test results for the facility and the integration of experience feedback are satisfactory on the whole. Diadem construction worksite, September 2015.