ASN Report 2018

4.1.3  –  Assessment of the CEA’s decommissioning strategy About twenty of the BNIs or individual DBNI installations operated by the CEA are currently in final shutdown status or undergoing decommissioning. This figure has been rising for the last few years and will continue to do so in the coming decade. The main challenge for the CEA is to ensure the decommissioning of the definitively shut down facilities, to retrieve and package the legacy waste and to manage its radioactive waste and materials that have no identified use. ASN wanted the CEA issues presenting the greatest risks to be subject to more rigorous tracking through a steering aid implemented at the CEA’s highest level. The CEA has proposed a list of “major commitments” essentially concerning decommissioning and waste management projects. This enables the priority actions to be tracked. At the end of 2018, CEA presented ASN with the update of its “major commitments” (see Table 1). Discussions between the CEA and ASN are continuing in order to integrate additional commitments in 2019, such as removal in the medium term of the source term of the ÉOLE- Minerve, Osiris-ISIS, Orphée or Phébus installations, removal of specific wastes, etc. Until the end of the 2000’s, the CEA’s strategy was to conduct all of the BNI decommissioning operations concurrently as soon as they were in final shut down status and with as short as possible time frames. Due to the combined effect of the number of facilities involved and the extent of the delays in work progress, the CEA has in some cases been obliged to keep radioactive substances stored on the sites, sometimes in large quantities. This situation led ASN, jointly with ASND, to ask the CEA in July 2015 to conduct an overall review of the decommissioning strategy for its facilities, the prioritisation of the operations, the human resources and the efficiency of the organisational structures and the appropriateness of the financial resources devoted to these operations. The two authorities also asked the CEA to present its management strategy for radioactive materials and waste. The CEA submitted the conclusions of its review in December 2016. The number and complexity of the operations to carry out in all the nuclear facilities operated by the CEA has led priorities being defined based chiefly on safety analyses. The majority of the top priority operations concern the retrieval and packaging of legacy waste stored in the DBNI of Marcoule, under ASND oversight. The top priority operations for the civil facilities concern BNI 72 in Saclay and BNI 56 in Cadarache. These are projects that aim to reduce the “potential source term”, which is currently high. The CEA has also committed to including in the highest priority tasks the operations made necessary by contamination of the soils. In the majority of cases, mostly on account of its human and financial resources, the CEA is moving towards “two-stage” decommissioning of each facility, removing as much of the potential source term as possible in the first stage, then, in the second stage - after a time lapse which may be long - completing the decommissioning operations. ASN and ASND have mobilised substantial expertise to examine this strategy and will adopt a position on the file in 2019. 4.2  ̶  Assessment of the nuclear safety of EDF’s facilities undergoing decommissioning The nuclear safet y of EDF facilities undergoing decommissioning is on the whole satisfactory. ASN nevertheless notes the exceeding of the deadlines for the main decommissioning operations of all the Gas-Cooled Reactors and the Brennilis reactor. Following the events concerning the internal contaminations of workers on the sites of Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux A in 2016 and Chooz A in 2017, EDF put in place an action plan which aims at better controlling the risks due to the presence of The “major commitments” of the CEA as at 31 December 2018 SITE BNI ACTION DEADLINE Marcoule 71 (Phénix) Transmit the NOAH commissioning file for decommissioning of Phénix 2nd half 2021 177 (Diadem) Transmit the commissioning file Waiting for a new deadline proposal (previously 1st half of 2019). Late, given stopping of the works in 2018 Saclay 35 (Stella) Recovery of effluents from tank MA500 New proposed deadline of 1st half 2020 (previously 2nd half 2018) further to experience feedback on the pace of cementation. Currently being examined by ASN 56 (Storage area) Complete recovery of stainless steel packages frompit 6 2nd half year 2022 72 (ZGDS) Remove fuels frompool and block storage 2nd half year 2022 72 (ZDGS) Eventually stop accepting routine production of radioactive waste from Saclay. Then initiate the post-operational clean-out and decommissioning process 2nd half year 2022 Fontenay-aux-Roses 165-166 (Process- Support) Remove fromBNI 166 the LLW/ILW/ HLWorganic effluents resulting fromR&Dwork in BNI 165 1st half 2019 Table 1 346  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 13 – DECOMMISSIONING OF BASIC NUCLEAR INSTALLATIONS