ASN Report 2018

PROVENCE-ALPES-CÔTE D’AZUR REGIONAL OVERVIEWOF NUCLEAR SAFETY AND RADIATION PROTECTION of the safety and radiation risks, the retrieval solutions are technically complex to design and implement. The CEAmust improve its project management. ASN considers that the safety management of BNI 56 has significantly progressed over the last few years and has reached a satisfactory level. With regard to environmental protection, over and beyond the monitoring of the water table under the BNI, which is adequately ensured by the licensee, ASN remains attentive to the compliance work on the stormwater management system, given the operating history and the radiological marking of certain areas of the facility. Phébus research reactor – CEA Centre The Phébus reactor (BNI 92) is a pool experimental reactor with a power rating of 38 MWth which functioned from 1978 to 2007. Phébus was designed for the study of serious accidents affecting light water reactors and for defining operating procedures to prevent core melt-down or to mitigate its consequences. The licensee submitted its decommissioning file to ASN in February 2018, and ASN is currently examining it, along with its periodic safety review report submitted in 2017. The initial schedule for removal of spent fuel elements, authorised in 2017, could not be met in 2018 due to the unavailability of the receiving facility (located on the CEA Marcoule site). ASN points out that decommissioning is governed by compliance with this milestone. ASN’s assessment of the Phébus installation is satisfactory on the whole for 2018. The formalisation of the methods of monitoring outside contractors must nevertheless be improved. Laboratory for Research and Experimental Fabrication of Advanced nuclear Fuels (Lefca) – CEA Centre Commissioned in 1983, the Lefca (BNI 123), is a laboratory designed for conducting studies on plutonium, uranium, actinides and their compounds. The Lefca carries out studies aimed at understanding the behaviour of these materials in the reactor and at various stages in the fuel cycle. It also conducts research in the treatment, stabilisation and reconditioning of these materials. In 2018, the Lefca finalised the transfer of part of its research and development activities to the Atalante laboratories (BNI 148) of Marcoule. The groundwater drainage system for preventing the risk of liquefaction of the soils in the event of an earthquake, the installation of which is required by ASN resolution 2010- DC-0173 of 5 January 2010, was put into service in January 2018. In addition, renovation work on the nuclear ventilation of the facility, made necessary due to the obsolescence of the controlling programmable controllers, is in progress and closely monitored by ASN. Technical requirements have been laid down to govern continued operation of the installation through ASN Chairman’s resolution CODEP‑CLG-2018‑034301 of 5 July 2018. Furthermore, at the end of 2018 the licensee declared that final shutdown of the installation would be effective no later than 31 December 2023. Finally, ASN considers that the level of safety of the installation is on the whole satisfactory. Chicade laboratory   – CEA Centre Since 1993, the Chicade facility (BNI 156) has been conducting research and development work on low and intermediate- level objects and waste, chiefly involving: •  the destructive and non-destructive characterisation of radioactive objects, waste sample packages and irradiating objects; •  the development and qualification of nuclear measurement systems; •  the development and implementation of chemical and radiochemical analysis methods; •  the expert assessment and inspection of waste packages packaged by the waste producers. ASN considers that the operation of Chicade is on the whole satisfactory. The licensee reported several significant events relating to diffuse discharges of tritium to ASN in 2018, and ASN remains particularly attentive to the resolving of these diffuse discharges over the long term. The CEA must also learn the lessons from equipment failures, which are the cause of other significant events. ASN inspection in the Cedra facility – October 2018 84  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018