ASN Report 2017

451 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 16  - Radioactive waste and contaminated sites and soils These elements will have to be supplemented by those relative to the tests carried out since this file was submitted. ASN moreover conducted an inspection of the static and dynamic containment of the facility in 2017. ASN’s opinion on the safety of operation of the Agate facility is generally positive. ཛྷ ཛྷ Cedra facility (BNI 164) The Cedra facility, which was authorised by Decree 2004-1043 of 4th October 2004, processes intermediate- level, long-lived waste (ILW-LL) and stores packages of low and medium irradiating waste pending the creation of an appropriate disposal route. The package storage duration is limited to fifty years. ASN authorised commissioning of the first phase of the storage facility for low-irradiating (LI) waste (two storage halls) and medium irradiating (MI) waste (one storage hall) in April 2006. At the end of December 2017, the filling rate was 39.6% for the LI halls and 36.5% for the MI hall. According to the CEA’s projections, the FI and MI halls should be filled to capacity as of 2029, but this time frame is strongly dependent on the rate at which the waste stored in BNI 56 is removed. The third storage phase (two additional storage buildings for the FI waste and seven additional compartments for storing MI waste) will then have to be put into operation. Further to the ASN opinion of 2017 on the Cedra periodic safety review guidance file, the CEA sent ASN the safety review conclusions report in November 2017. This safety review does not concern the second phase (phase b: intermediate processing buildings) because in June 2017 the CEA submitted to the Minister responsible for Nuclear Safety an application to modify its creation authorisation decree with the aim of cancelling it. In the periodic safety review, ASN will be particularly attentive to the scope and method adopted by CEA to review the conformity of the installation and the stored packages in particular. In 2017, the CEA implemented an action plan to clarify the acceptance specifications applicable to the packages received at Cedra to ensure they are handled and stored with all necessary safety precautions. 2016 was effectively marked by significant event notifications concerning noncompliance with package acceptance specifications. The work relating to this action plan was discussed during the inspections held on the facility in 2017. An auxiliary building intended for the storage of equipment was commissioned in 2017. Commissioning of the examination unit authorised by ASN in January 2016 has been pushed back to the end of the first half of 2018. The corrective actions further to the fall of an MI waste bin in October 2016 were deemed satisfactory and authorised by ASN in 2017. However, it was observed during inspections in 2017 that their implementation had taken a long time. ASN will be attentive that their implementation continues properly 2018. In addition, the reception of packages from the alpha waste packaging unit (Marcoule) with heterogeneous fissile material distribution was authorised by ASN in July 2017. This work will continue in 2018. ASN considers that Cedre must be operated with greater rigour and that the measures to clarify the specifications of the packages and waste bins received at the facility must be continued. ཛྷ ཛྷ Cascad facility (BNI 22) The Cascad facility, authorised by a Decree of 4th September 1989 modifying the Pégase facility and operated since 1990, is dedicated to the dry storage of spent fuel canisters in wells. Unlike Pégase, from which all the radioactive substances must be removed as soon as possible, Cascad displays a satisfactory level of safety. Through a resolution of 8th July 2014, ASN authorised a further ten years of storage for the spent fuels already present in the facility. This resolution is without prejudice to the conclusions of the facility’s next periodic safety review for which the file was submitted on 30th October, the same date as that for Pégase. The examination of this file will focus in particular on the way the site effects are taken into account in the evaluation of the seismic resistance of the facility. The CEA is considering pushing back to 2025 the decoupling of the two facilities to avoid any concomitant activity that would penalise removal of the araldite-coated spent fuel from Pégase. ASN will examine this change-of-strategy request. As at 13th September 2017, 268 pits out of 315 usable pits were occupied and contained a total of 3,616 containers. On condition that the removal of fuel from the Phénix NPP takes place before 2023, the CEA estimates that the Cascad pits will have reached 90% filling capacity in 2026. ASN’s opinion on the safety of operation of the Cascad facility is generally positive. Two inspections were carried out in 2017 on BNI 22 (Cascad and Pégase), one a general inspection, the other concerning the periodic checks and tests. The responses were on the whole satisfactory. ཛྷ ཛྷ Chicade (BNI 156) The Chicade facility (chemistry, waste characterisation), the creation of which was authorised by the Decree of 29th March 1993, conducts research and development work on low and intermediate level waste and objects. This work mainly concerns: ཛྷ ཛྷ the destructive and non-destructive characterisation of radioactive objects, waste sample packages and irradiating objects; ཛྷ ཛྷ the development and qualification of nuclear measurement systems; ཛྷ ཛྷ the development and implementation of chemical and radiochemical analysis methods; ཛྷ ཛྷ the assessment and monitoring of waste packaged by the waste producers.