ASN Report 2018

3.3.2  –  The radiation protection situation The use of particle accelerators presents significant radiation exposure risks for the workers; ASN is particularly attentive to these facilities and therefore inspects them regularly. In 2018, ASN put in place inspection indicators specific to particle accelerators, which now enable the radiation protection situation in this sector of activity to be better assessed on the national scale. 12 centres equipped with these devices were inspected by ASN in 2018 (i.e. 20% of the national pool). ASN considers the radiation protection situation in the centres using these devices to be satisfactory on the whole. In effect, the main requirements for conducting this activity with a satisfactory level of radiation protection (organisation of radiation protection, training, technical verifications and design of the premises in which these devices are used) are appropriately implemented by the large majority of the licensees concerned. Nevertheless, the inspections carried out in 2018 also identified areas for improvement on which ASN will remain vigilant: ∙ ∙ compliance with the regulations concerning the frequency of third-party technical checks and the formalised processing of nonconformities detected during these checks; ∙ ∙ the presence of an unlocking device which can be actuated from inside the rooms in which particle accelerators are used. Lastly, with regard to experience feedback, no significant radiation protection event was reported to ASN in 2018, apart from the recurrent events associated with the use of particle accelerators in shipment security checks. Effectively, when conducting these checks the customs services take precautions (such as broadcasting information messages in several languages) to avoid the unjustified irradiation of people who could be hiding in these vehicles (see point 3.3.1). However, despite these precautions, the customs services regularly notify ASN of events relating to the exposure of people hidden in checked vehicles. Nevertheless, although this exposure is unjustified, it remains extremely low with effective committed doses of just a few µSv. 3.4  ̶  Research activities involving unsealed radioactive sources 3.4.1  –  The devices used In the research sector, as at 31 December 2018, ASN counts more than 700 licenses delivered under the Public Health Code, of which 90% are delivered to public or mixed (public/private) structures. The majority of these institutions and laboratories use unsealed sources for medical and biomedical research, molecular biology, the agri-food industry and the sciences of matter and materials, etc. The can also be suppliers of unsealed sources. They also use sealed sources for performing gas-phase chromatography, liquid scintillation counting or in irradiators. X-ray generators are also used for X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. Particle accelerators are used in research into matter or for the manufacture of radionuclides. 3.4.2  –  The radiation protection situation In 2018, ASN carried out 53 inspections in this sector (46 inspections per year on average over the 2016‑2018 period). Generally speaking, the steps taken in the last few years have brought improvements in the implementation of radiation protection in research laboratories thanks to enhanced overall awareness of radiation protection issues. The most notable improvements concern the conditions of waste and effluent storage, particularly the setting up of pre- disposal checking procedures. ASN nevertheless remains particularly attentive in this respect, especially given the reporting of several Significant Radiation protection Events (ESR) in 2018 (see Graph 12). ASN has also observed strong involvement of the Radiation Protection Advisors (RPA) with the research teams, resulting in radiation protection being better taken into account in operations involving ionising radiation sources. ASN has identified areas for improvement, particularly regarding the classification of people working with ionising radiation, which is usually overestimated by the employers, and the non- systematic implementation of systems for recording ESRs. Distribution over the French territory, according to the ASN entity responsible for licensing, of institutions authorised to used unsealed radioactive sources in the research sector 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 Paris Bordeaux Marseille Lyon Nantes Strasbourg Lille Orléans Dijon Caen Châlons Montrouge* Number of authorizations 13 14 16 17 29 33 47 58 74 103 113 190 * The Transport and Sources Department examines the research activities when they are linked to suppliers of ionising radiation sources. Graph 11 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018  249 08 – SOURCES OF IONISING RADIATION AND THEIR INDUSTRIAL, VETERINARY AND RESEARCH APPLICATIONS 08