ASN Report 2018

OCCITANIE REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION The incineration and waste melting units functioned under suitably safe conditions without yet reaching their maximum processing capacity. The technical shutdown of the incineration unit for preventive maintenance was extended in anticipation of the preventive replacement of a ventilation filter in the last containment barrier. Through its resolution 2014-DC-0446 of July 2014, ASN had prescribed additional analyses concerning the aircraft crash, lightning and earthquake hazards. These analyses were submitted to ASN in 2018 and are currently being examined. ASN considers that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection in the Centraco plant is on the whole satisfactory. ASN considers that the significant events reported by the licensee are dealt with competently. The management of on-site transport operations within the Centraco plant is satisfactory. Improvements are nevertheless expected in the on-site transport rules and their oversight, particularly with regard to the formalising of requirements specific to on-site transport which do not stem from the conventional rules governing transport on the public highway. Gammatec ioniser The Gammatec ioniser, which constitutes BNI 170, is an industrial irradiator operated by the company Stéris since 2013. Gammatec treats products by ionisation (emission of gamma radiation) with the aim of sanitising (disinfecting) or sterilising materials or improving their performance. The installation consists of an industrial bunker and an experimental bunker. Both bunkers contain sealed sources of cobalt-60 which provide the radiation necessary for the facility’s activity. ASN considers that the level of nuclear safety and radiation protection of Gammatec remains satisfactory. The methods of managing deviations must nevertheless be better formalised in the integrated management system of the facility. Écrin facility The Écrin facility, BNI 175, is situated within the Malvési plant operated by Orano Cycle in the municipality of Narbonne in the Aude département . The Malvési plant transforms the concentrates from the uranium mines into uranium tetrafluoride, which represents the first step in the fabrication of a uranium-based nuclear fuel (excluding extraction of the ore). The transformation process produces liquid effluents containing nitrated sludges loaded with natural uranium, which are decanted and evaporated in lagoons in the facility. The entire Malvesi plant is subject to the system governing Seveso high-threshold ICPEs (installations Classified for Protection of the Environment). The Écrin BNI is made up by the plant’s two legacy sludge storage basins (B1 and B2), which stopped being used in the process in 2004 following failure of the basin B2 embankment. These two basins are classified as a BNI due to the presence of traces of artificial radionuclides resulting from the treatment of reprocessed uranium from the Marcoule site. The Écrin BNI was authorised by Decree of 20 July 2015 for the storage of radioactive waste for a period of thirty years with a volume of waste not exceeding 400,000 m 3 and total radiological activity of less than 120 terabecquerels. The Écrin facility was commissioned by ASN resolution 2018-DC-0645 of 12 October 2018. This authorisation now enables the licensee to start the work defined in the authorisation decree, more specifically the creation of a vault to the south of basin B2 in which the materials removed from basins B5 and B6 can be stored. Once all these works are completed, a bituminous cover shall be put in place of the basins of the BNI. These works, which will span several years, should start in 2019. Furthermore, in the French National Radioactive Material and Waste Management Plan (PNGMD), ASN asked Orano Cycle to study the various long-termdisposal options for the waste contained in the Écrin facility. These studies are currently being examined. Marcoule platform environmental protection The management of waste and transfers of effluents from the civil installations, and monitoring of the environment are governed by ASN resolutions of 1 March 2016  setting out the requirements relative to the limits and conditions of liquid and gaseous effluent discharges from the Melox, Ata-lante, Centraco and Gammatec facilities. ASN considers this management and monitoring to be satisfactory. In the context of decommissioning of the Phénix reactor, a similar draft resolution for the Phénix reactor was made available for consultation by the public, the Local Information Committee, the licensee and the Departmental Council for the environment and health and technological risks in 2018, and is currently being finalised. In appli-cation of these resolutions, the Marcoule site licensees must update the site’s environmental impact study (which dates from 2012) by the end of 2019. 78  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018