ASN Report 2018

T he Nantes division regulates nuclear safety, radiation protection and the transport of radioactive substances in the 5 départements of the Pays de la Loire region. Pays de la Loire region In2018, ASNcarriedout 54 inspections in small-scalenuclear activities and 4 inspections relative to the transport of radioactive substances. Among the 24 significant events reported and analysed to draw lessons from them, 3 events concerned radiotherapy patients, one of which was rated level 1 on the ASN-SFRO scale, another level 2. Ionisos irradiator The company Ionisos operates two industrial ionisation installations on the sites of Pouzauges (Vendée département ) and Sablé‑sur‑Sarthe (Sarthe département ). These installations, constituting BNI 146 and 154 respectively, use high-activity cobalt-60 sealed radioactive sources. The gamma radiation emitted is used to sterilise, destroy pathogenic germs or reinforce (by cross-linking) the technical properties of certain polymers, by exposing the products to ionise (single-use medical equipment, packaging, raw materials and finished productions for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, packing films) for a pre-determined length of time. The installation comprises a basin for underwater storage containing the radioactive sources and surmounted by a bunker in which the ionisation operations are performed, premises for storing the products before and after treatment, offices and technical rooms. ASN considers that the Ionisos irradiators in the Pays de la Loire region are operated with due attention to nuclear safety and radiation protection. ASN continued its examination of the periodic safety review reports of the two irradiators in 2018.  REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION THE INSTALLATIONS AND ACTIVITIES TO REGULATE COMPRISE: ཛྷ ཛྷ BNIs: ݸݸ the Ionisos irradiator in Sablé-sur-Sarthe; ݸݸ the Ionisos irradiator in Pouzauges; ཛྷ ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the medical sector: ݸݸ 6 external-beam radiotherapy departments; ݸݸ 4 brachytherapy units; ݸݸ 11 nuclear medicine departments; ݸݸ 40 centres performing fluoroscopy-guided interventional procedures; ݸݸ 52 computed tomography scanners; ݸݸ some 2,500 medical and dental radiology devices; ཛྷ ཛྷ small-scale nuclear activities in the veterinary, industrial and research sectors: ݸݸ 1 cyclotron; ݸݸ 34 industrial radiography companies, including 7 gamma radiography contractors; ݸݸ about 400 licences for industrial and research equipment, including 220 users of devices to detect lead in paint; ཛྷ ཛྷ activities linked to the transport of radioactive substances; ཛྷ ཛྷ 5 radiation protection technical control agencies: 1 ݸݸ radon screening agency; 1 ݸݸ head office of laboratories approved for taking environmental radioactivity measurements. see p. 200 see p. 230 see p. 256 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018  79