ASN Report 2018

1.4  ̶  Outlook: Planned facilities A large number of CEA’s facilities were built to support the French NPP fleet in the 1960s to 1970s. They are today ageing and CEA may wish to replace them for safety reasons or to obtain tools that are better-suited to its research needs. CEA’s future projects concern: ∙ ∙ The Mosaïc laboratory : CEA is envisaging the construction of a new laboratory, called Mosaïc, to replace the LECA laboratory. In 2018, CEA informed ASN that studies had started to define the safety options for this new facility. ∙ ∙ The Zephyr critical mock-up : CEA is envisaging the construction of a new critical mock-up called Zephyr (Zero Power Experimental PHYsics Reactor) which would incorporate the functions of ÉOLE and Minerve, as well as those of Masurca, the experimental reactors that have now been permanently shut down. The purpose of this facility is to carry out appropriate experiments to validate core physics computing tools for reactors in service and for future projects. 2 —  ASN actions in the field of research facilities: a graded approach 2.1  ̶  The graded approach according to the risks in the facilities The BNI System applies to more than about a hundred facilities in France. This System concerns various facilities with widely differing nuclear safety, radiation protection and environmental protection challenges: nuclear research or power reactors, radioactive waste storage or disposal facilities, fuel fabrication or reprocessing plants, laboratories, industrial ionisation facilities and so on. The safety principles applied to nuclear research or industrial facilities are similar to those adopted for nuclear power reactors and nuclear fuel cycle facilities, while taking account of their specificities with regard to risks and detrimental effects. ASN has implemented an approach proportionate to the scale of the risks and detrimental effects presented by the facility. In this respect, ASN has divided the facilities it regulates into three categories, from 1 to 3 in descending order of scale of their risks and detrimental effects for the interests mentioned in Article L. 593-1 of the Environment Code (ASN resolution 2015-DC-0523 of 29 September 2015). This BNI classification enables the oversight of the facilities to be adapted and thus reinforced on those with the highest risks, in terms of the inspections and the scope of the examinations carried out by ASN. For example, the research reactors, called RHF and Cabri, are placed in categories 1 and 2 respectively, while the particle accelerator, called Ganil, is placed in category 3. 2.2  ̶  The periodic safety reviews The Environment Code requires that the licensees carry out a periodic safety review of their facilities every ten years. This periodic safety review is designed to allow an appraisal of the situation of the facility with respect to the rules applicable to it and to update the assessment of the risks or detrimental effects, notably taking into account the condition of the facility, acquired operating experience, changes in knowledge and the rules applicable to similar facilities. They are thus an opportunity for upgrades or improvements in fields in which the safety requirements have changed, in particular seismic resistance, protection against fire and confinement. For facilities which had not yet undergone such a review, the Decree of 2 November 2007 required that the licensees submit their first periodic safety review report no later than November 2017. CEA thus carried out 16 periodic safety reviews and transmitted the review reports to ASN on 1 November 2017. ASN implemented an examination method commensurate with the issues in the facilities: some facilities merit particular attention owing to the risks they present, while others, with lesser risks, are the subject of appropriate inspections and investigations. The technical examination of all the periodic safety review reports will take several years, owing to the specific nature of each of the facilities concerned. In 2018, ASN continued with its on-site inspections, which were started in 2016 and are specifically devoted to the periodic safety review of the facilities. It finds that CEA has now better assimilated the problems relating to the review, thanks to the implementation on each site of a transverse organisation specifically devoted to these processes. ASN will be attentive to the correct performance of the works identified in the periodic safety reviews. For CEA, it finds that several projects concerning the refurbishment of facilities or new facility projects, mentioned in the periodic safety review reports, were subsequently redefined or simply abandoned for budgetary reasons. In certain cases, ASN could thus be required to restrict the operating conditions, or even request the shutdown of certain facilities. CEA also informed ASN that it wished to even out the workload involved in these reviews, in terms of its organisation and its resources, by bringing forward the submission of the periodic safety review reports for certain facilities in the coming decade. ASN is in favour of this approach. 2.3  ̶  Lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi NPP accident, ASN initiated a stress tests approach for the nuclear facilities. The approach consists in assessing the safety margins in the facilities with regard to the loss of electrical power, or cooling, and with regard to extreme natural hazards. In May 2011, ASN required that stress tests be carried out on the BNIs with the highest risks in the light of the Fukushima Daiichi accident (batch 1). For the CEA BNIs (Masurca, Osiris and JHR) and the RHF reactor (ILL) in batch 1, and in the light of the conclusions of the stress tests, ASN in 2012 ordered the implementation of appropriate organisational and material measures, referred to as the “hardened safety core”. As at the end of 2018, ASN considers that good progress has been made 332  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 12 – NUCLEAR RESEARCH AND MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES