ASN Report 2018

ÎLE-DE-FRANCE REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION Poséidon irradiator – CEA Centre Authorised in 1972, the Poséidon facility (BNI 77) is an irradiator comprising a storage pool for cobalt-60 sources, partially surmounted by an irradiation bunker. The BNI moreover includes another bunkered irradiator baptised Pagure, and the Vulcain accelerator. This facility is used for studies and qualification services for the equipment installed in the nuclear reactors, notably thanks to an immersible chamber, as well as for the radiosterilisation of medical products. The main risk in the facility is that of exposure to ionising radiation due to the presence of very high-level sealed sources. In 2017 and 2018, CEA carried out modifications on the facility to eliminate the common mode failure risk on the cabled Pagure and Vulcain channels, and improved control of access to the Poséidon and Pagure bunkers. ASN examined the management of these modifications during an inspection in 2018, and found it to be satisfactory. Alongside this, ASN considers that the BNI 77 is operated satisfactorily with regard to radiation protection, particularly as regards worker dosimetric monitoring. The organisation for the in-service monitoring of pressure equipment, however, must be improved. Solid waste and liquid effluent treatment facilities  The CEA operates diverse facilities: laboratories associated with fuel cycle research as well research reactors. CEA also carries out numerous decommissioning operations. Consequently, it produces diverse types of waste. The CEA has specific processing, packaging and storage facilities for the management of this waste. Solid radioactive waste management zone – CEA Centre The solid radioactive waste management zone (BNI 72) was authorized by Decree of 14 June 1971. Managed by the CEA, this facility processes, packages and stores the high, intermediate and low-level waste from the Saclay centre installations. It also stores legacy materials and waste (spent fuels, sealed sources, scintillating liquids, ion-exchange resins, technological waste, etc.) pending disposal. For several years now the CEA has been having difficulties in meeting the requirements set by ASN and the commitments it made following the periodic safety review of 2009 or the inspection follow-ups. In 2017, in view of the delays in the removal from storage operations, the CEA requested a change in the deadlines prescribed in ASN resolution 2010-DC-0194 of 22 July 2010, particularly the pushing back of facility final shutdown deadline to 31 December 2022 so that the BNI can continue to be used for the management of radioactive waste from the Saclay BNIs. ASN will be attentive to the justification for the new time frames requested for completion of the removal from storage operations. It will more particularly set the conditions for continued operation of the facility further to the examination of the periodic safety review (for which the report was submitted in 2017), which is conducted constistently with the examination of the decommissioning file transmitted in 2015 and supplemented in 2017. In the light of the inspections carried out in 2018, ASN considers that the level of safety of the facility is acceptable. The removal from storage operations are proceeding under suitably safe conditions, despite the divergences from schedule. The year was nevertheless marked by several significant events concerning loss of integrity of drums of waste, reflecting the need to better control their storage conditions. Lastly, and more broadly, in view of the scheduled final shutdown and decommissioning of BNI 72, ASN shall be attentive to the proposed organisation and the means committed by the CEA for the future treatment of the solid waste from the Saclay site.. Liquid effluents management zone – CEA Centre The liquid effluents management zone constitutes BNI 35. Declared by the CEA by letter of 27 May 1964, this installation is dedicated to the treatment of radioactive liquid effluents. The CEA was authorised by a Decree of 8 January 2004 to create an extension in the BNI, called «Stella», for the purpose of treating and packaging low-level aqueous effluents from the Saclay centre. These effluents are concentrated by evaporation then immobilised in a cementitious matrix in order to produce packages acceptable by Andra’s above- ground waste disposal centres. The concentration process was put into service in 2010, but the appearance of cracks in the first packages led ASN to limit the packaging operations. The CEA has thus only packaged some of the effluents fromone of the installation’s tanks that contains 40m 3 of concentrates. The CEA has made progress since the early stages in defining its packaging solution for all the effluents from the installation. Thus, in June 2018, Andra authorised the packaging of these concentrates in accordance with the 12H package approval. The CEAmust now ask ASN for authorisation tomanufacture these packages. 58  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018