ASN Report 2018

NORMANDIE REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION Final shutdown and decommissioning operations  HAO facility BNI 80 carried out the first stages of the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels: reception, storage then shearing and dissolution. The dissolution solutions produced in BNI 80 were then transferred to the UP2-400 industrial plant in which the subsequent reprocessing operations took place. BNI 80 comprises: • HAO North, spent fuel unloading and storage site; • HAO South, in which the shearing and dissolution operations were carried out; •  the «filtration» building, which accommodates the filtration system for the pool of the HAO South facility; •  the HAO silo, in which are stored the hulls and end-pieces (fragments of cladding and fuel end-pieces) in bulk, fines coming primarily from shearing, and resins and technological waste from the operation of the HAO facility between  1976 and  1997; •  the SOC (Organised Storage of Hulls) comprising three pools in which the drums containing the hulls and end- pieces are stored. Decommissioning of the HAO facility was authorised by Decree of 31 July 2009. Orano Cycle encountered difficulties during the operations prior to decommissioning of cells 904 and 906 (difficulties in particular in achieving a radiological level in cell 906 compatible with semi- remote decommissioning operations, which led it to revise its decommissioning scenario. The new scenario will be presented to ASN in 2019. The waste retrieval and packaging project currently under way in the HAO silo and the SOC, represents the first hold point in the decommissioning of the facility. Orano Cycle has expressed its difficulties inmeeting the prescribed deadlines for retrieval of the waste contained in the HAO silo and the SOC. Pushing back the deadlines will make it necessary to modify the Decree of 31 July 2009. In 2018, the licensee continued the construction of the cell for the waste retrieved from the silo, and in late November 2018 it installed all the large equipment items. Alongside this, BNI 80 had undergone a periodic safety review. Further to the examination of this review, ASN set additional requirements in a resolution of 4 January 2018. UP2‑400 plant, STE2 effluent treatment station and ÉLAN IIB facility In July 2015, Orano Cycle submitted complete decommissioning files for BNIs 33 and 38. It also submitted the safety review reports for BNIs 33, 38 and 47. The examination of the reviews, conducted jointly with that of the decommissioning files, serves among other things to ascertain that the ageing management provisions are compatible with the decommissioning strategy envisaged by the licensee, in particular with the projected duration of the decommissioning project as a whole. The licensee must carry out additional studies of the earthquake resistance of the LCC (Central quality Control Laboratory). In 2018, Orano Cycle submitted updates to the decommissioning files for BNIs 33 And 38. The licensee continued carrying out the decommissioning operations authorised by the Decrees of 2013, notably in BNI 33. The decommissioning of BNI 33 is progressing satisfactorily, while that of BNI 38 is encountering difficulties, essentially due to the uncertainties about the radiological and chemical content of the cells. As far as BNI 47 is concerned, the results of the additional characterisations, prerequisites for the decommissioning operations, led Orano Cycle to start revising the decommissioning scenario, which will be presented to ASN in 2019. ASN nevertheless notes that Orano Cycle is endeavouring to establish action plans to control the schedule drifts. ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018  71