ASN Report 2020

The conformity of the facilities In 2020, ASN found that the management of deviations affecting the installations continued to improve. More specif ically, EDF further improved its ability to correct deviations rapidly, even if efforts are still needed on this point. However, as in previous years, ASN considers that the actual compliance of the facilities with the rules applicable to them needs to be signif icantly improved. The year 2020 was again marked by the detection of deviations affecting equipment that call into question its ability to fulf il its function in an accident situation. Some of these deviations date back to the construction of the reactors, others were created when implementing modifications to the facilities, including recently, or result f rom ageing or insuff icient maintenance of the facilities. 2020 brought to light earthquake resistance defects on electrical power sources, back-up equipment and reactor cooling systems. EDF must continue the targeted inspection actions it has been gradually deploying over the last few years, but must also broaden their scope. The inspections prescribed by ASN in 2019 on the electrical supply sources, in particular the emergency diesel generator sets, enabled the seismic resistance defects on 37 reactors to be detected and corrected. This event was rated level 2 on the International Nuclear and radiological Event Scale (INES) for certain reactors. Maintenance In general, the organisation in place in the NPPs for carrying out large-scale maintenance work was satisfactory in 2020, even in a situation made more difficult by the Covid-19 pandemic. In a context of a heavy maintenance workload, due in particular to the continued operation of the reactors and the Grand Carénage major overhaul programme, ASN has in the past regularly drawn EDF’s attention to the persistence of an excessively high number of maintenance quality deficiencies. Over the last few years EDF has taken steps to reduce their occurrence. However, in 2020, ASN still found areas for improvement with regard to reactor maintenance, such as the consideration of various hazards, the preparation of activities or the traceability of the work carried out. Faults in the management of the activities are also still caused by the procurement of non-conforming spare parts. In the past, ASN regularly noted EDF’s diff iculty in ensuring appropriate and proportional monitoring of subcontracted activities, whether the activities are performed on-site or at the suppliers of goods and services. This being said, in 2020 ASN conf irms the improvement observed in 2019 in the technical oversight of contractor operations and monitoring, particularly through the use of computerised tools recently deployed in the NPPs. Environmental protection EDF’s organisation for controlling the detrimental effects and impact of the NPPs on the environment needs to be improved on most sites. ASN considers that the licensee needs to raise its level of vigilance on these topics even further. In 2020, ASN observed improved adoption by the sites of the methodical analysis of microbiological hazards and efforts made to improve the containment of hazardous liquid substances on certain sites. However, ASN considers that corrective measures are still needed with respect to pollution prevention and waste management. Despite a few occasional weaknesses, EDF has shown a good level of control over its management process for effluent discharges. Worker radiation protection and occupational safety ASN observes that the step backwards observed in worker radiation protection in 2019, was accentuated in 2020. The analysis of signif icant events in particular all too often shows inadequate perception of the radiological hazards and an inappropriate radiation protection culture. ASN considers that EDF must give radiation protection real meaning in order to unite the operators in dealing with the true issues and challenges. In 2020, the occurrence of accidents fell signif icantly in EDF’s NPPs. The particular context created by the health crisis may have contributed to these results. EDF has continued with implementation of improvement measures regarding the main risks for workers further to inspections by the ASN labour inspectors. However, certain hazard situations must be signif icantly improved. These concern the hazards linked to work equipment and more particularly to lifting gear, the explosion and f ire hazard and electrical hazards. Continued operation of the reactors The ambitious modifications EDF plans making to the facilities and the operational methods within the f ramework of the reactor periodic safety reviews are signif icantly improving the safety of the facilities. EDF is deploying considerable engineering resources for these reviews. As in previous years, ASN observes that these engineering capacities are saturated. ASN considers that all the provisions specif ied by EDF and those that it itself stipulates, open up the prospect of continued operation of the 900 Megawatts (MWe) of electrical power reactors for the ten years following their fourth periodic safety review. Implementation of this review on each reactor will include specif ic inspections and will take account of the particularities of each installation. In 2020, EDF continued to carry out the fourth ten-yearly outages of its 900MWe reactors, with the first of them being of a reactor on the Bugey site. As of 2021, the pace of these ten-yearly outages will accelerate, with several being performed every year. ASN will be attentive to EDF’s capacity for deploying the resources needed to perform these operations in satisfactory conditions. Individual NPP assessments The ASN assessments of each NPP are detailed in the Regional Overview in this report. With regard to safety, the NPPs of Saint-Alban and, to a lesser extent, Civaux and Cattenom stood out favourably in 2020. For the Cattenom NPP, the progress observed will need to be confirmed, as 2020 saw very little maintenance work carried out. ASN is maintaining the reinforced monitoring put into place on the Flamanville NPP in 2019. The Gravelines, Nogent-sur-Seine and Golfech NPPs also under-performed in 2020. With regard to radiation protection, only the Civaux NPP stood out positively. ASN considers that several NPPs had under-performed. This is particularly the case with the NPPs of Dampierre-en-Burly and Flamanville and, to a lesser extent, those of Golfech, Chooz, Nogent-sur-Seine, Gravelines and Blayais. With regard to environmental protection, the NPPs of Paluel, Nogent-sur-Seine, Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux, Chooz and Saint- Alban stood out positively. On the other hand, the NPPs of Belleville and Dampierre and, to a lesser extent, those of Blayais and Gravelines, had under-performed. ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2020 15 ASN ASSESSMENTS PER LICENSEE AND BY AREA OF ACTIVITY