ASN Report 2018

The monitoring performed by ASN, in the light of the provisions of its resolution 2014-DC-0444 of 15 July 2014 concerning shutdowns and restarts of pressurised water reactors, primarily concerns: ∙ ∙ during the outage preparation phase, the content of the outage programme drawn up by the licensee. As necessary, ASN may ask for additions to this programme; ∙ ∙ during the outage – through regular briefings and inspections – the implementation of the programme and the handling of any unforeseen circumstances; ∙ ∙ at the end of outage, when the licensee presents its reactor outage report, the condition of the reactor and its readiness for restart. After this inspection, ASN will either approve reactor restart, or not; ∙ ∙ after the reactor restarts, the results of all tests carried out during the outage and during the restart phase. • The identification and handling of deviations The checks initiated by EDF for its operating baseline requirements and the additional verifications requested by ASN on the basis more particularly of operating experience feedback, can lead to the detection of deviations from the defined requirements, which must then be processed. These deviations can have a variety of origins: design problems, construction errors, insufficient control of maintenance work, deterioration through ageing, organisational shortcomings, etc. The measures for detecting and correcting deviations, prescribed by the Order of 7 February 2012, play an essential role in maintaining the level of safety of the facilities. • “Real time” verification The performance of periodic tests and preventive maintenance programmes on the equipment and systems helps identify deviations. Routine visits in the field and technical inspection and verification of activities considered to be important for the protection of persons and the environment are also effective means of detecting deviations. • Verifications during reactor outages EDF takes advantage of nuclear reactor outages to carry out maintenance work and inspections that cannot be performed when the reactor is in production. These operations are mainly used to remedy anomalies already identified, but also lead to the detection of new ones. Before each reactor restart, ASN asks EDF to identify any anomalies not yet remedied, to take appropriate compensatory measures and to demonstrate the acceptability of these anomalies with respect to the protection of persons and the environment for the coming production cycle. • Ten-yearly verifications: conformity checks EDF carries out periodic safety reviews of the nuclear reactors every ten years, in accordance with the regulations (see point 2.10.2). EDF then carries out an in-depth review of the actual state of the facilities by comparison with the applicable safety requirements, more particularly on the basis of the in-service monitoring hitherto carried out, and lists any deviations. These verifications can be supplemented by a programme of additional investigations designed to check the parts of the facility which are not covered by a preventive maintenance programme. • The additional verifications in response to ASN requests In addition to the steps taken by EDF with regard to its operating baseline requirements, additional checks are carried out at the request of ASN, whether with regard to operating experience feedback about events which have occurred on other facilities, after inspections, or after examination of the provisions proposed by the licensee within the context of the periodic safety reviews. • Informing ASN and the public When a deviation is detected, and in the same way as any BNI licensee, EDF is required to assess the impacts on nuclear safety, radiation protection and protection of the environment. If necessary, EDF sends ASN a significant event notification. As of level 1 on the INES scale, the public is informed on asn.fr of the events thus notified by the licensees. The defined requirements The Order of 7 February 2012 states that a defined requirement is a “ requirement assigned to an Element Important for Protection (EIP) of persons and the environment, so that, with the expected characteristics, it performs the function stipulated in the safety case mentioned in the second paragraph of Article L. 593-7 of the Environment Code, or to an Activity Important for Protection (AIP) of persons and the environment so that it meets its objectives with respect to this safety case ”. For the EIP, these requirements can in particular concern: ཛྷ ཛྷ the characteristics of the materials used; ཛྷ ཛྷ the manufacturing, assembly, erection and repair processes; ཛྷ ཛྷ the physical parameters and criteria characteristic of the performance of the EIP. For the AIP, these requirements can in particular concern: ཛྷ ཛྷ the skills needed to perform the activity; ཛྷ ཛྷ any qualifications necessary; ཛྷ ཛྷ checks and hold points; ཛྷ ཛྷ the equipment and hardware needed to enable the activity to be carried out in accordance with the regulatory or even contractual requirements, such as to guarantee compliance with the safety case. Deviation handling A deviation is non-compliance with a defined requirement or a requirement set by the licensee’s integrated management system. A deviation may thus affect a structure, a system or a component of the facility. It may also concern compliance with an operating document or the working of an organisation. The regulations require that the licensee identify all deviations affecting its facilities and handle them. The activities related to the handling of deviations are activities important for the protection of persons and the environment. They are thus subject to oversight and monitoring requirements, the implementation of which is regularly checked by ASN. 292  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 10 – EDF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS