ASN Report 2020

b) Off-site Emergency Plans In the vicinity of the facility, the Off-site Emergency Plan (PPI) is established by the Prefect of the département concerned pursuant to Articles L. 741-6, R. 741-18 et seq. of the Domestic Security Code, “ to protect the populations, property and the environment, and to cope with the specific risks associated with the existence of structures and facilities whose perimeter is localised and fixed. The PPI implements the orientations of civil protection policy in terms of mobilisation of resources, information, alert, exercises and training ”. These Articles also stipulate the characteristics of the facilities or structures for which the Prefect is required to define a PPI. The PPI specifies the initial actions to be taken to protect the general public, the roles of the various services concerned, the systems for giving the alert, and the human and material resources likely to be engaged in order to protect the general public. The PPI falls within the framework of the Disaster and Emergency Response Organisation (Orsec) which describes the protective measures implemented by the public authorities in large-scale emergencies. Therefore, beyond the application perimeter of the PPI, the département or zone Orsec plan is activated. ASN assists the Prefect, who is responsible for the drafting and approval of the PPI, by analysing the various aspects with its technical support organisation, the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), including those concerning the nature and scale of the radiological consequences of an accident. The PPIs currently make it possible to plan the public authorities’ response in the first hours of the accident in order to protect the population living within a 20 kilometres (km) radius around the affected reactor. This distance was increased from 10 to 20 km following the Ministry of the Interior’s publication on 3 October 2016 of an Instruction concerning the response to a major nuclear or radiological accident – “ Changes in national doctrine for drafting or modifying PPIs around NPPs operated by EDF ”. In 2017, it published a guide intended for the offices of the Prefects in order to implement this instruction by updating the PPIs for the NPPs to take account of the changes, in particular the preparation for “immediate” evacuation within a 5 km radius, the inclusion of consumption restrictions as of the emergency phase and the expansion of the PPI radius for NPPs to 20 km. The PPIs comprise a “reflex” phase which includes an immediate licensee alert of the populations within a 2 km radius of the facility, requiring them to take shelter and await instructions. The additional measures to be taken beyond the zone covered by the PPI are specified, as applicable, through a joint approach which can be based on the Orsec arrangements, taking account of the characteristics of the accident and the weather conditions. c) On-site Emergency Plan As part of the BNI commissioning authorisation procedures, ASN examines and approves the PUIs and their updates (Article R. 593-31 of the Environment Code). The PUI, prepared by the licensee, is designed to restore the plant to a controlled and stable condition and mitigate the consequences of an event. It defines the organisational actions and the resources to be implemented on the site. It also includes the provisions for rapidly informing the public authorities. The obligations of the licensee relative to the preparation for and management of emergency situations are defined in Title VII of the Order of 7 February 2012 setting the general rules for BNIs. The associated provisions were stipulated in ASN resolution 2017-DC-0592 of 13 June 2017 concerning the obligations of BNI licensees in terms of preparedness for and management of emergency situations and the content of the on-site emergency plan, known as the “emergency” resolution, approved by the Order of 28 August 2017. 1.1.2 Response plans for radioactive substances transport accidents The transport of radioactive substances represents nearly a million packages carried in France every year. The dimensions, weight, radiological activity and corresponding safety implications can vary widely from one package to another. National emergency exercises and barrier measures at the ASN Emergency Centre “ ‘Exercise – exercise – exercise’ ”. This morning, at 08h01, we were informed by the general alert system that a fire had broken out on “unit 12” of the Chinon Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). EDF triggered its On-site Fire Emergency Plan (PUI) outside the controlled area at 08h01, and then its radiological safety PUI at 9h52. ” On 1 December 2020, ASN activated its Montrouge Emergency Centre for a national emergency exercise on the EDF NPP at Chinon (Indre-et-Loire – 37). This exercise was an opportunity to test the adaptation of ASN’s emergency response organisation to the constraints arising from the health context. In order to comply with the health instructions and protect the staff, a large number of measures had been implemented. The activation of the Emergency Centre was limited, to allow physical distancing between the emergency teammembers and movements around the emergency centre were kept to the strict minimum, with audio-conferences held outside the Emergency Centre. The unit in charge of international relations was also activated “remotely”. Finally, no observers were allowed to attend the exercise in order to limit the number of people on the site. Masks and sanitiser were available to the teams throughout the day, the workstations were repeatedly disinfected, with frequent ventilation operations, throughout the course of the day. Locally, the Orleans division was also mobilised on a reduced scale, notably with the dispatch of a staff member who joined the département level operations centre of the office of the Indre-et-Loire Prefect, which was also activated on a much reduced scale. In order to limit the risks of contamination, no staff member went to the Chinon NPP site. ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2020 175 04 – RADIOLOGICAL EMERGENCY AND POST-ACCIDENT SITUATIONS 04