ASN Report 2017

454 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 16  - Radioactive waste and contaminated sites and soils ASN does however observe that several removal from storage operations have not started. The progress of these operations is behind the projected schedule. Compliance with certain deadlines set by ASN for removing from storage the drums in the 40 non-drained pits of building 114 and the fuel stored in the pool and in the concrete blocks is compromised, which led the CEA in 2017 to request that these deadlines – set by ASN resolution of 22nd July 2010 – be pushed back by five years. This request is currently being examined. ASN shall be attentive to the justification of the new time frames requested and the plan of action proposed by the CEA to complete the removal from storage operations in a schedule compatible with maintaining the facility in suitably safe conditions. Despite these delays, ASN considers that the safety of the facility such as it is ensured today is on the whole satisfactory. The decommissioning authorisation application file submitted in December 2015 was lacking in many respects. ASN asked for additional information, which the CEA submitted in September 2017. This included more specifically the safety case for the operations planned in the next ten years (removal from storage operations, EPOC in particular). In November 2017 the CEA filed the concluding report for the periodic safety review of BNI 72 to ASN. On 7th October 2017, CEA stated that shutdown of BNI 72 was pushed back from 31st December 2017 to 31st December 2022 in order to continue its activities during the transition phase between the initially planned shutdown date and the entry into effect of the decommissioning decree. In the context of the periodic safety review and examination of the decommissioning file, ASN will check whether partial operation of BNI 72 can continue in complete safety and it will ensure that the decommissioning preparation operations, particularly those concerning the removal of radioactive and hazardous substances, are carried out under optimum conditions of safety and radiation protection and with adequate resources. ASN carried out four inspections of the facility in 2017. They led to several requests for corrective action and additional information. The licensee must in particular step up the monitoring of outside contractors responsible for waste management. Lastly, with the prospect of the scheduled final shutdown and decommissioning of BNI 72, ASN will be attentive to the proposed organisation and the means deployed by the CEA for the future treatment of solid waste from the Saclay site. ཛྷ ཛྷ Liquid effluent management zone (BNI 35) Decree 2004-25 of 8th January 2004 authorising the creation of Stella required the CEA to remove old effluents stored in the MA500 and HA4 tanks of BNI 35 within ten years. The CEA was unable to meet this deadline due to technical difficulties in the retrieval and packaging of this waste. Indeed, only half of the initial source term had been removed (19,256 gigabecquerels in 2004) as at 8th January 2014. Nevertheless, all the radioactive organic effluents contained in tank HA4, which presented the greatest safety risks, had been removed by the end of 2013. Through resolution 2014-DC-0441 of 15th July 2014, ASN prescribed new retrieval deadlines for these effluents and obliged the CEA to have them removed by the end of 2018, with intermediate milestones at the end of 2014, 2015 and 2016. These intermediate milestones were met. The CEA nevertheless informed ASN in 2017 that it was having difficulties in completing the emptying of the last tank within the prescribed of end-of-2018 deadline. ASN is attentive to the measures taken by the CEA to keep these difficulties under control and to start the clean-out of the building accommodating these effluents. On the Cadarache site ཛྷ ཛྷ Radioactive waste storage area (BNI 56) BNI 56, which was declared in January 1968, is used for storing solid radioactive waste. The facility comprises six pits, five trenches, three pools and hangars containing primarily intermediate-level, long-lived waste (ILW-LL) from the operation or decommissioning of the CEA’s installations which cannot be disposed of at the CSA repository. The facility also comprises storage areas of legacy very low level (VLL) waste compatible with disposal at the Cires facility. The waste present on the facility must be retrieved as soon as possible, packaged and stored in appropriate facilities (Cedra in particular). Retrieval of the waste from the pits and trenches requires the deployment of new procedures. The VLL waste will be characterised and packaged at the STARC ICPE, situated in Epothémont (Aube département ), then transferred to the Cires repository. The report presenting the conclusions of the periodic safety review of the facility was submitted in April 2017. At the same time, the CEA submitted an application for registration of the BNI perimeter of the facility because the regulatory framework in force when it was created did not provide for a BNI perimeter to be explicitly defined. A joint examination is being conducted on the two subjects. During the inspections of the facility in 2017 it was observed that the management and monitoring of the equipment for ensuring the containment of materials with respect to the soils and surface and groundwater could be improved, and this issue will be addressed specifically in the examination of the periodic safety review of the facility. The CEA plans to submit the facility decommissioning file in the second half of 2018. ASN considers that significant improvements have been made in safety management at this installation over the last few years. The CEA completed waste retrieval and packaging projects in 2017 in accordance with its commitments (retrieval of the T2 trench). In addition, the CEA has restored an operating pace that exceeds its targets for pits 5 and 6 for the year 2017. As for the “legacy” VLL waste, its removal from storage should be completed by 2019. However, delays are observed in emptying the pools and retrieving the low-level waste from the pits, given the complexity of the operations with regard